


Ain't fate a bitch?

by myqueenyoursavior



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-24 05:03:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 51,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6142342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myqueenyoursavior/pseuds/myqueenyoursavior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when fate forces Emma and Regina to co-parent a child that isn't their own?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [piiinco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/piiinco/gifts).



> I was watching the movie "Life as we know it" and I thought "What if Swan Queen were in a similar situation?" then I took the basic plot from it, and created my own story.

The first rays of sunshine that came through the semi-open window slightly warmed her bare feet, long blonde hair intertwined with her dark ones on the pillow, and a strong yet gentle arm was casually leaning on her stomach. It was a typical lazy Saturday morning and Regina had no better place to be. Why would she? Her beautiful wife was snoring next to her, their kid was sleeping in her own room by now; she couldn't have asked for a better life.  
The brunette looked at the blonde’s peaceful face and started thinking about how it all started… How they got to be here right now…

* * *

  
  
“So,” the older woman arched an eyebrow “are you sure I’m going to like this woman?”  
  
“Yes!” the younger one exclaimed a bit too eagerly “David and I think she is a perfect match for you.” They were sitting in Regina’s kitchen, two empty mugs in front of them on the table.  
  
“Mary Margaret, how is it possible that you two idiots know what’s a perfect match, when you have met in high school, and never dated anyone else?”  
  
“That’s exactly how we know when two people are perfect for each other,” she smiled widely “Just trust me on this, Regina!”  
  
She thought about it for a few moments; they had tried to set her up so many times before — they never used the words “perfect match” — but still…  
  
“You know? You don’t really have to do this. I can find my own dates.”  
  
“First of all, that’s not really true. You are always too busy with your own work to focus on your love life. Secondly, I just feel guil-“  
  
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” begged Regina, while slightly rolling her eyes “I will be there on Friday night.”  
  
“Really?” said Mary Margaret jumping off her chair a little too enthusiastically and almost wrapping the other in a hug, almost.  
  
“You really shouldn’t jump like this at seven and a half month pregnant,” Regina told her in a harsh voice.  
  
Mary Margaret knew she was really just concerned for the baby, so she touched her belly, replied “You’re right! I’ll be more careful,” and gave the older woman a reassuring smile.  
  
She was still standing there, when Regina asked “Aren’t you supposed to have a doctor’s appointment in half an hour?”  
  
“Yes! I almost forgot!” She frantically started gathering all her things together “Where is my head these days?”  
  
“Where it has always been, I suppose,” the older woman said with a mocking smile on her face.  
  
“Please, not that story again,” the other woman was adjusting her handbag on her shoulder.  
  
“What? That your head is stuck in a fairytale?” she was laughing by now “But it’s true!”  
  
“I told you not to say it! And now you’re making me late!”  
  
“Now, I am making you late?” this kind of bickering was normal between the two.  
  
“This-” the pregnant woman said pointing at her belly "-is making me late.” She started walking toward the door, then she turned around to face the other once again, and added: “Thank you for the apple pie, it was delicious as always! See you on Friday?”  
  
“You’re welcome!” answered Regina “And yes, see you on Friday!” she was sure her childhood friend would call or text her at least a dozen times in the next four days.  
  
At the sound of the door closing behind Mary Margaret, Regina was glad the house was silent once again. She got up to pour herself another cup of tea, and thought: “Maybe I will like this woman!” this particular thought warmed her inside a little more than the tea she was drinking.

* * *

  
  
On the other side of town that same day, Emma was filling up some paperwork, when there was a knock on her office’s door.  
  
“Come in.”  
  
David, one of her deputies, put his head round the door and said: “Boss, it’s 9 o’clock. I brought you something from that diner you love.”  
  
The blonde looked at the wall clock in front of her, “I hadn’t realized it was this late already. Come in,” she repeated.  
She moved the paperwork on her desk to make room for the two trays, while Davis closed the door and sat down in front of her.  
  
They both started eating in a comfortable silence. They had become friends almost immediately when Emma had been moved there as the new sheriff a couple of years back. Neither of them were a big talker, so they enjoyed spending time together; whether it was being out on patrol, or sharing a meal at the station.  
  
Halfway through it, David took a sip of his drink, cleared his throat, and started talking: “So, is it really over between you and Lily?”  
  
“I…” Emma placed her half eaten sandwich on the tray in front of her “Yes, almost a year now. Why? Do you want to set me up with someone?” she teased.  
  
“Actually…” he awkwardly passed a hand through his hair “… Yes.”  
  
She widened her eyes a bit, and said: “Really? I wasn’t being serious, you know?”  
  
“I think you’d like her,” said her deputy “you should give it a shot.”  
  
“I don’t know, David,” admitted the blonde, but asked: “Who is she?”  
  
“Mary Margaret’s childhood friend; I think you two could be a good match.”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Yeah!”  
  
“I’ll take your word for it,” she was really eager to meet new women, but her work always kept her too busy. Or at least that’s what she was telling herself since the breakup. In reality, she had been miserable for a long time after it had happened. Yes, she had taken every opportunity to work extra shifts, but her nights consisted mostly of her wallowing at home with junk food and Disney movies. She was finally ready to meet someone new now, though.  
  
“When do I get to meet her?”  
  
“Friday night at our place; how does that sound to you?”  
  
“Great!”  
  
There was another knock on the door, immediately followed by Ruby, her other deputy, entering the room.  
“Am I interrupting something?”  
  
“No.” replied the sheriff “What’s going on?”  
  
“Burglary at Mr. Gold’s; I need one of you to back me up, he suspects they are still in the house.”  
  
“Boss, I’ll go!” said David “You finish your sandwich.”  
  
“Thank you, David. And keep me posted!”  
  
“Sure, boss!” both her deputies said while running out the room.  
  
Finally alone again in her office, she finished eating her grilled cheese, while thinking about her date on Friday. A big childish smile on her face.

* * *

  
  
The clock on her bedside table signed 6:00 pm of the famous Friday night. Mary Margaret had called every single day to remind her of the date, as she had predicted, so she wasn’t surprised to hear the phone ring once again.  
  
“Hello?” she held the phone between her head and her shoulder, trying to zip her dress at the same time.  
  
“Regina, what are you doing home? I didn’t think I’d find you there,” said Mary Margaret in one breath.  
  
“Why did you call then?” asked Regina; looking at herself in the full length mirror in front of her.  
  
“To leave you a message remanding you to — “  
  
“Be there by 9 sharp. And to wear something appropriate,” said the other woman automatically “You could have just texted me, you know?”  
  
“I didn’t want to sound intrusive,” said in a low voice the woman on the other end of the phone.  
  
“Because this isn’t intrusive at all?” asked Regina harshly; she was more nervous about the upcoming date than about Mary Margaret being her usual self.  
  
“Why are you at home anyway?” she said, ignoring the accusatory question altogether.  
  
“I asked Belle to take care of things without me. I wanted to be prepared for tonight.”  
  
“Wow! I’m impressed!”  
  
“You reminded me of this date so many times, that it made me anxious.”  
  
“Are you sure it isn’t because you haven’t had a real date in over a year?”  
  
That was mostly the reason why she was so nervous, but she would never give Mary Margaret the satisfaction of admitting she was right about something.  
  
“No! Just you and your million phone calls.”  
  
“If you say so,” Mary Margaret wasn’t convinced, but decided not to push it.  
  
“Plus,” continued Regina ignoring her “I wouldn’t call having dinner with Snow White’s and Prince Charming’s impersonators a real date.”  
  
“It was one summer,” the younger woman protested in a high pitched tone.  
  
“And I’ll never get tired of reminding you about it. Maybe I’ll even use it as an icebreaker if things go south tonight.”  
  
“No, you wouldn’t! Would you?” she kept protesting.  
  
“You never know,” oh, how much she loved mocking her.  
  
“Okay, okay. I got the message: no more making you anxious.”  
  
“And no more phone calls!” added Regina.  
  
“Okay,” Mary Margaret replied in a sheepish voice “I’ll see you later.”  
  
“Bye, Mary Margaret.”  
  
As soon as she dropped her cordless phone on her bed, she examined herself more carefully in the mirror. She was wearing a simple black dress with a deep neckline showing her cleavage.  
  
“I don’t think this constitute ‘appropriate’ in Mary Margaret’s book. I don’t have a pastel dress, or a nun’s dress, though,” she thought to herself snickering.  
  
She looked back at her bed, which was covered by a dozen dresses of different shades of black. The only color in the pile was from the red phone, which reminded her of the red dress in the back of her closet. “That would definitely be inappropriate.”  
She was too discouraged and anxious at this point, therefore she decided to take a long bath before making any further decision.  
She would usually ask Belle or Kathryn about decisions like this one; her two friends had definitely more common sense than her when it came to interacting with people, but she couldn’t call either of them right now.  
Tonight was the opening of a new exhibition at Regina’s art gallery, and Belle probably had her hands full without Regina there.  
Kathryn, on the other hand, was out of town at the moment. A few weeks back, she had received a phone call who had forced her to fly to Boston: her fiancé, Frederick, had been in a serious accident. He had almost fully recovered by now, he only needed some physical therapy; so Kathryn probably wouldn’t have minded Regina asking for dating advices. Stubborn as she was though, the brunette refused to disturb her friend in a moment like this.  
  
“Yeah,” she thought to herself “I only have two friends. Two more than mother ever thought I’d have.”  
  
Contrary to Cora’s belief, Regina had managed to build two very strong friendships and keep them throughout the years.  
She had met Kathryn in high school; she had been the only one not afraid of being Regina’s friend, everyone else was too focused on Cora’s reputation to bother learning that Regina was nothing like her mother. Regina didn’t mind that though: having one true friend was more than enough for her, and Kathryn had always been the very best at that.  
 Later on, when she had gone to Stanford, she had made her second best friend: Belle. They were in the same art program, and had become friends almost immediately. Yes, after graduation they had lost touch for a few years: Belle had moved to France, and Regina was having one too many problems with her mother. They had reconnected again 5 years ago, though; when Regina had decided to open her new art gallery, and Belle’s resumed had ended up in the pile of people looking for a job as curator. Now, the two of them were even closer than before.

* * *

  
  
Emma was sitting in her patrol car, trying to keep her third cup of coffee of the day upright between her thighs in an attempt at sugaring it, when…  
  
“Crap!” she exclaimed. All three packages had fallen right into the cup, splashing her shirt.  
  
“Do you need a hand with that?” asked Ruby who was sitting in the passenger seat.  
  
“I don’t think there is anything to do anymore,” replied her, pointing at the mess she had just created “but thanks.”  
  
“Sure,” she said the other, then tilted her head to take a better look at her boss. “You seem… hmm… clumsier than usual.”  
  
“Am I?” Emma asked opening the car door. “I’ll better go get another cup before going back to the station. And a bear claw, too.”  
  
She stepped out of the car and marched toward the coffee shop on the other side of the street. Ruby followed her.  
  
“Wait,” she suddenly realized “don’t you have that date tonight?”  
  
“I do. What does this have to do with anything?”  
  
“That explains it. You have been particularly distracted all day.”  
  
“Have I?”  
  
“Yes, you left the cell’s door open this morning, thank god the only person in there was snoring loudly and didn’t notice your mistake. You also tried to bite into your stapler instead of your sandwich.”  
  
“Oh!” replied the blonde embarrassed “I didn’t realize.”  
  
They both stepped into the coffee shop, and Emma ordered her coffee and a bear claw.  
  
“Didn’t you order this exact coffee like five minutes ago?” asked the woman taking the order.  
  
“Don’t ask!” answered Ruby promptly.

  
“Thank you for that,” said Emma after she had paid and sugared her coffee on the counter.  
  
“No problem,” replied the other.  
  
They were crossing the street to get to the car, when Emma started unwrapping her bear claw.  
  
“Considering how distracted you are today, I’d wait to get in the car, or at the office,” suggested Ruby.  
  
“You’re probably right,” said the blonde sounding like a child who had been denied ice cream for dinner.  
  
“Don’t you have your date in a few hours anyway?”  
  
“Yes, but if I don’t eat something, I’ll be too nervous tonight.”  
  
  
Ten minutes later they were parking in front of the station. The whole ride there had been spent with Ruby holding her things, and Emma casually, and very hungrily glancing at them at every red light.  
  
“Here” said Ruby stepping out of the car and handing everything back to her.  
  
“Thank you!” the blonde immediately took a big sip and a bigger bite. “Now let’s go see what’s going on in here.”  
  
They stepped inside. David was there waiting for them.  
  
“You are here!” he exclaimed “I better go home and help Mary Margaret.” He then paused and took a better look at Emma’s shirt “You are going to change, right?”  
  
She looked down at her shirt, too. “I…”  
  
“Had a fight with your coffee?” came a snickering voice from the cell.  
  
“Shut up, Leroy!” said Emma “And yes, David, I’ll change before coming tonight. What is he still doing over here anyway?”  
  
“He said he’d rather stay here another night than go out and face Mr Gold.”  
  
“What did he do this time?”  
  
“He trashed the whole office while I was signing his release, which I had to throw away, obviously,” answered David pointing at a trash bag leaning on the side of the wall “I just finished cleaning up.”  
  
“Typical! I’m sure Ruby can handle him all by herself tonight, though,” said the sheriff looking form the inmate to the deputy standing on her right.  
  
“No! Not alone with Ruby,” came a desperate voice from the cell “I’d rather have a chat with Gold.”  
  
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” said Ruby looking at him with a malicious smile that made the other two people outside the cell laugh. The one on the inside muttered “fuck," instead.  
  
“I’ll better get going,” said David after another few minutes of mocking Leroy. “See you in a few hours. Don’t be late.”  
  
“I won’t.”

* * *

  
  
“What are you wearing?” asked Mary Margaret, as soon as she opened the door that same night.  
  
“Something appropriate, like you told me to.”  
  
“I said appropriate, not get ready for a business transaction,” replied the younger woman while still looking the other up and down.  
  
“My fashion sense is better than this,” replied Regina irritated “but I couldn’t have worn one of my own 'too showing’ dresses and still look appropriate.” She had never had this problem before; Mary Margaret had indeed tried to set her up a million times, but she would always meet them somewhere else, away from Mary Margaret’s inquisitive eyes.  
  
“That’s true” admitted the other with a horrified look on her face “You could borrow one of mine, if you want.”  
  
“And what,” snickered the brunette “look like twinsies? No, thanks. I’ll stick with this.”  
  
Meanwhile David, who had a wash cloth in his hands, had come to the door, too.  
  
“Are we having a meeting?” he asked, laughing. Regina just gave him one of her death stares.  
  
“Sorry!” he said sobering up “Do you want a drink to loosen up those nerves?”  
  
“I’m not nervous,” snapped Regina back, which only showed how wrong her last sentence was. “But I’ll gladly take a drink, thank you.”  
  
They both ventured into the dining room, purposely ignoring Mary Margaret’s protest.  
  
“Don’t get drunk, you two. I’m begging you: at least not tonight, please,” she gave out a loud sigh and followed them.  
  
  
A few minutes later,  when they had their drinks ready, a virgin for Mary Margaret of course; they all went to the kitchen. The oven clock signed 8:30 pm. Of course Regina was already there. Mary Margaret’s ‘be here by 9 sharp’ means ‘be here at least a half hour earlier’. She had learned this lesson the hard way all those years ago.  
Mary Margaret sat down on one of the chairs at the table, David checked the pots on the stove, and Regina started looking around checking if she could help in any way. She was used to their kitchen by now, she had cooked in it so many times before. She had offered to cook tonight too, but both Mary Margaret and David insisted that she was a guest for this occasion and shouldn’t have done anything beside being that, just a guest.  
  
“I have everything under control,” said David a few moments later, noticing what she was doing.  
  
Regina nodded and sat down next to his wife, who was sipping her drink.  
  
“So, what are we having?”  
  
“Pasta…” he took the recipe book off the counter and read “… put — puttanesca?” or at least he tried to.  
  
Regina grinned “Do you even know what that means?”  
  
“I guess we do not want to know,” said Mary Margaret “We have roast beef, too.”  
  
“Right! The roast beef is still in the oven,” David remembered suddenly.  
  
“You sure you don’t need help?” asked Regina.  
  
“Hmmm… maybe you can check on that?” admitted the blond.  
  
“On it!”

* * *

  
  
Meanwhile, at the station things weren’t going as smoothly as Emma had hoped. She had gone to the bathroom for 15 minutes to change her stained shirt and freshen up a bit. When she had come out of it, she had wished she had never left. Leroy and Ruby were bickering more than usual, and more loudly.  
  
“Wanna bet? Get me out of this cell and I’ll show you,” yelled him.  
  
“I’ll be the one to show you, but I’ll get in there,” yelled the other back.  
  
“Okay, let’s do this.”  
  
“Wait, wait. You can’t fight an inmate,” Emma tried to get herself heard over the two of them.  
  
“Fight?” said Ruby and Leroy at the same time.  
  
“You are crazy, sister,” added Leroy just for good measure.  
  
“What are you betting on, then?” Emma asked, puzzled.  
  
“Who gets to eat more pizza pies in one go,” Ruby was talking this time “ I bet him I could wolf down two more than he can. He doesn’t believe me.”  
  
“Have you ever seen her eat? You’ll be sorry!”  
  
Leroy snickered and said: “Have you seen me eat? Do you want in on the bet, too? 50 dollars.”  
  
“Hell yeah, I do!” replied Emma fishing the bill out of her jeans pocket “And I’ll even raise you: if Ruby wins, and I’m sure she will, you’ll get to go apologize to Gold. First thing tomorrow morning. Alone.”  
  
“Deal!” Leroy replied immediately.  
  
“We are going to be in for a treat.” Said the deputy sharing a knowing look with her boss “I’ll better call the pizzeria now.”  
  
A few minutes later, she hung up the phone and said: “They won’t deliver all those pies, you’ll have to wait until I go there and pick them up.”  
  
Emma looked at her wrist watch and urged her “It’s 8:30, you better hurry up. I can’t be late tonight.”

* * *

  
  
A half hour later of Mary Margaret trying to have Regina change in one of her own dresses, Regina preventing David from burning their dinner, and an overall of friendly bickering and laughing; Mary Margaret exclaimed “It’s 9 pm now. Are you sure you told Emma to be here by 9?” questioning her husband, “Sharp?”  
“Of course I did,” replied David back “the clock just turned to 9, she’ll be here any moment, I’m sure.”  
Regina was silently getting anxious all over again, the effect of the earlier drink had already faded away.  
  
They waited another 20 minutes, in which Mary Margaret kept telling David to call Emma, and David saying they should wait another couple of minutes. Regina grew more and more impatient the more she heard the two of them arguing.  
The doorbell finally rang at 9:21. The trio looked at the clock at the same time, they were all sitting at the kitchen table now.  
“I’ll get it,” offered David.  
  
He almost ran at the door, wishing Mary Margaret wouldn’t say anything to Emma about how late she was. He opened it to found her boss looking extremely irritated.  
  
“What happened?” he asked immediately.  
  
“Those two…” she let out a low growl “I need a drink first.”  
  
“I don’t think — “ tried to say David.  
  
“Trust me. You want me to have a drink first; a strong one.”  
  
  
He guided her to the dining room without further questions.  
Emma started taking her red leather jacket off while walking behind him, revealing another red layer under it.  
As soon as he was near the bar area in the further angle of the room, David turned around to ask what kind of drink she wanted and widened his eyes at the view in front of him “What are you — “  
At the same time Mary Margaret was entering the room, closely followed by Regina.  
  
“David was that Em — “ but her question was also left midair.  
  
Mary Margaret, David, and Regina were all staring at the blonde in the middle of the dining room.  
Under her leather jacket, she had revealed a bright red shirt, one that was too revealing even for Regina’s standards. After arriving at 9:10 from picking up the pizzas, Ruby, with the help of Leroy of course, had managed to stain her second shirt with tomato sauce. By then it was obviously too late to go home and change, so Ruby had given her one of the  shirts she kept in her locker for when she had to go out right after work.  
And now she was here with three people, one of which she was supposed to make a good impression on, staring at her; she was pretty sure her face was matching Ruby’s shirt by now.  
  
“And my dresses are 'too showing’?” said Regina under her breath, half amused by all the cleavage, half irritated by not being able to dress like she wanted to.  
  
Mary Margaret shushed her, still looking very much shocked toward their new guest. At least she had forgotten about her being twenty-one minutes late.  
  
“Is bourbon okay?” asked David regaining his voice “Dinner is ready too, so you’ll have to drink it at the table.”  
  
Emma just then noticed that the table in the room was all set for dinner “Bourbon sounds good, thank you.”  
  
While David poured her drink, the three women were left in an awkward silence.  
  
“Oh, how rude of me,” said Mary Margaret at once “I haven’t introduced you two.”  
She then pushed Regina, who was almost standing at the door between the dining room and the kitchen, toward Emma still in the middle of the room.  
  
“Regina, this is Emma Swan,” said the pregnant woman “Emma, this is Regina Mills,” gesturing from one woman to the other.  
  
Emma, with her hands inside her pockets, gave the other an awkward “Hi!” and licked her lips slightly, taking in the gorgeous brunette standing in front of her.  
  
Regina was still looking up and down at the blonde, she was very much enjoying the view of the cleavage, but also of those firm arms wrapped in that tight shirt…  That, and the nervousness she had felt all week, made her “Nice to meet you, dear,” sound like she would rather be somewhere else. Or at least that’s how Emma perceived it, making her lose that tiny bit of hope left after the being late and the shirt disaster.  
  
“Sit, sit.” Mary Margaret interrupted the second, but not least, awkward silence of the night.       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  
Thirty minutes into the dinner, they were at the second course of the meal. Regina was carefully cutting her roast beef in small pieces and taking even smaller bites; since she had been able to eat on her own, her mother had forced her to ‘behave like a Queen when at the table, no matter the circumstances’. This was one of the few things her mother had told her that still stuck with her. Every time she was about to eat something, she could hear her mother’s voice echoing in her head.  
Emma, on the other hand, was wolfing down her second piece of roast beef, and taking very long sips of wine here and there to avoid choking on the big bites. She was still unable to really enjoy a peaceful meal without fear of someone stealing it from under her nose, especially when she was as nervous as she was tonight. Her fear came from being shipped from one foster home to the other when she was a child; those homes were always too overcrowded and Emma rarely got to eat something, there was always at least one kid that would bully their way out of everything.  
Neither of them knew the reason behind the other’s eating behaviors, so they kept glancing at each other like they were observing a monkey at the zoo.    
  
They were sitting opposite each other by Mary Margaret’s request. The dinner had been really quiet so far, except for the married couple trying to break the ice for them.  
  
“Regina!” exclaimed Mary Margaret for the fifth time that night, making the brunette startle a little “Do you want to tell Emma about Snow White and Prince Charming? You can tell her, if you want to,” she tried to encourage her to say something, anything. David looked at her in shock, there were a few things you couldn’t mention around his wife, and this was almost on top of the list.  
  
Regina looked at her taking in consideration the golden opportunity she had just been handed. She then gave a quick glance at Emma, hoping this had caught her attention, instead she found the blonde staring down at her plate. Regina pursed her lips, shook her head at Mary Margaret, and got back to carefully eating her meal.  
  
The two women couldn’t come up with a good topic to break the ice either; they were both very private people and the evening hadn’t had the luckiest of starts. They were both stuck in their own heads trying to think of something clever to say, hoping the other would make the first move. There surely had been a strong attraction from both sides; it was obvious to everyone in the room, even Mary Margaret. That attraction alone wasn’t enough right now.  
  
“So,” David was talking this time “what happened at the station?”  
  
Emma looked up from her now empty plate, glad someone was actually talking to her, even if it wasn’t her supposed date.  
  
She started explaining about the bet between Ruby and Leroy, how she had to wait for her to pick the pizzas up. The married couple was listening closely, Regina was half amused, half tired of this awkward situation.  
  
“She came back 40 minutes later, right?” Emma said, she was now really into telling the story  “After she let Leroy out of the cell, she started piling up the boxes on the desks, when they decided to make it into another contest: who could balance more boxes over their head. Long story short, I ended up with a slice of pizza flying directly on my shirt.”  
  
David shook his head and laughed.  
  
“Oh! That’s why you are wearing… that,” said Mary Margaret, she was glad she finally had an explanation for the red shirt, and the lateness. She then looked for any signs of reaction from Regina; when she had found none, she asked “Wasn’t Emma’s story funny?”  
  
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she has made this whole story up…” said Regina under her breath.  
  
“What?” asked Emma, tilting her head, and furrowing her eyebrows at the brunette.  
  
“Oh, now you are talking to me?” asked the brunette still in a low voice, she didn’t know why she was so irritated by this disastrous first date. She had had a million of those before.  
  
Mary Margaret and David were looking from one to the other, unable to say a word.  
  
“I don’t understand…” continued Emma.  
  
“You heard me,” Regina’s voice was a bit louder now “I wouldn’t be surprised if you made this whole story up to cover for the fact that you stained your shirt. Considering how you eat and all.”  
  
“Regina!” exclaimed Mary Margaret “I think you should apologize.”  
  
David’s mouth was hanging open.  
  
Emma was blinking back at her, she didn’t know how to react; if laugh it off, or fire back.  
“At least I don’t eat like a 80 year old,” she wasn’t known for laughing it off, after all, especially when someone pointed out behaviors she had picked up in foster homes that she had a hard time controlling.  
  
“What did you just say to me?” asked Regina, steam almost literally coming out of her nose.  
  
“You heard me this time. And what’s up with the sensible pantsuit? I thought this was supposed to be a date,” replied the blonde.  
  
“You should talk,” laughed the brunette “Look at the shirt…” she added, pointing at Emma’s chest.  
  
“I told you why I am wearing this,” protested the other.  
  
“Yeah, like that was a credible story…” Regina was feeling particularly angry, and she couldn’t understand why.  
  
The feeling on the other side was mutual. The conversation went on like this for another ten minutes, getting more and more aggressive.  
  
 “You know what?” said Emma at last “I’m out of here.”  
  
“NO!” said both David and Mary Margaret when they could finally put a word in.  
  
“I’ll better go,” repeated Emma “I’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you both for the dinner,” she grabbed her jacket, and put it on, on her way out of the room. Not before a last glance at Regina, who was looking everywhere but her direction.  
  
“What has gotten into you, Regina?” asked Mary Margaret, as soon as Emma was out of earshot.  
  
“I…” Regina cleared her voice, hoarse after all that arguing “I don’t know,” admitted at last.  
  
“You should go and apologize. You’ll probably still find her outside,” suggested David.  
  
“No, it’s not worth it now,” said Regina mortified “I have ruined the whole evening anyway. I’m sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay! I guess we were wrong,” said Mary Margaret looking at her husband “You weren’t a perfect match after all.” They both nodded in silence.  
  
Regina was staring at the now empty chair  in front of her, trying to understand what the hell had gotten into her. She always had had a difficult temper growing up, anyone with Cora as a mother would. But she had gotten over that behavior, or at least she thought she had. She really couldn’t explain it to herself. “Was it the fact that I was too nervous? Were my expectations too high? Am I really not suited to go on dates anymore?” she asked herself over and over. She wouldn’t find the answers to all her questions for a long time, at least not right now while she was still at her friends’ house.  
  
“Regina? Regina?” repeated Mary Margaret for the third time.  
  
“Yes?” said the brunette, coming out of her deep thoughts.  
  
“Do you want to stay in our guest room for tonight?”  
  
“No, it’s okay,” replied the oldest woman “I better get going now.”  
  
Five minutes later, after she had reassured Mary Margaret that she was okay to drive and David had refused any help cleaning up, she was stepping out of the house. A yellow car was now leaving the sidewalk. Getting inside her Mercedes, she wondered if it was Emma’s.  
  
It was indeed Emma in her yellow bug, driving away as soon as she had seen someone come out of the house. She had left in a hurry because she couldn’t stand having that argument with Regina, but as soon as she had gotten behind the wheel, she couldn’t bring herself to drive away. She kept thinking about the entire evening, beginning from the moment she had stepped inside David’s house. She was a bit irritated with those two back at the station, yes. She had arrived late and with a weird outfit, yes. But she thought they could hit it off once they had gotten over the initial awkwardness. There had been a strong physical attraction between the two, of that she was sure. Why did everything go wrong then? Why did she say all those things about the other woman? Her, like Regina, wouldn’t find any answer to all her questions for a very long time.


	2. Chapter 2

“You did what?” asked Kathryn, while trying to contain her laughter.  
  
“I have already told you a million times, a couple of hundred times since we sat here alone,” protested the brunette.  
  
“Well, I just got back, I have the right to know how my best friend’s disastrous date went,” tried to reason the other “plus, the play by play in person is always better.”  
  
“You don’t have to sound so amused, though,” said Regina pouting. She wasn’t really that annoyed, though. She was actually really glad to have her best friend back.  
  
“I know, but it’s fun,” said the blonde, winking at her friend.  
  
“So, if you must know,” said Regina answering the previous question “I had a heated argument with my date; not to mention the really awkward silence that proceeded it.”  
  
“And let’s not forget how you criticized said date on her eating habits,” added her friend.  
  
“She said I eat like a 80 year old,” protested the brunette once again.  
  
“Well…” the blonde left her words hanging.  
  
“What?” questioned the other.  
  
“You do kind of eat very slowly, and take small bites,” answered Kathryn.  
  
“But,” she made sure to add immediately “I know why you do it.”  
  
“Thank you!” Regina smiled slightly. Her friend had witnessed firsthand how strict Cora was about every aspect of Regina’s life; she also knew how much she had overcome over the years.  
  
“Have you thought that maybe Emma had her own reason behind her sloppy eating?” asked the blonde, after reflecting on it for a few minutes.  
  
“That’s what I told her, too,” said Belle, who had just approached their table.  
  
“Sorry, I’m late,” she added quickly. They had planned to go out for dinner the first day Kathryn was back from Boston; they now were at the restaurant waiting for Belle to start ordering. Belle and Kathryn had become good friends through Regina, the three of them enjoyed spending time together.  
  
“I have thought about it,” answered the brunette, while Belle was sitting down next to Kathryn, opposite her, “but there is no going back now. It’s been 3 weeks, can we just drop it?”  
  
Her two friends exchanged a look, then both agreed to let it go, for now.  
  
“Thank you!” said Regina relieved. She knew they’d bring it up again and again. They were still making fun of a ridiculous first date she had gone to two years ago: Mary Margaret had arranged it, as usual. Her childhood friend had insisted she’d meet this guy she had recently reconnected with. “I have met him at summer camp when I was in middle school. He is your age, though,” she had told her “He really loves nature, I think you could like him.” What Mary Margaret hadn’t told her was that he actually smelled like forest, and not the good — air freshener — kind of smell. She had to fake an indigestion when, during drinks at a pub, he had suggested they’d go for a walk in the nearby park. Now, she was glad her friends were giving her a break from first date talks.  
  
“Who is ready to get drunk tonight?” asked Belle, raising her hand. The other two women immediately followed her lead.  
  
————————————  
  
“You don’t have to pace yourself in front of me, you know?” pointed out David. In the last month, he had noticed how Emma had been taking smaller and smaller bites everyday, but hadn’t said anything till today.  
  
“I know!” replied the blonde, after taking a sip of her root beer. They were at her office’s desk, sharing one of their usual lunches.  
  
“Is this because of what Regina told you?” asked David.  
  
“Partially, yes,” answered Emma, blushing at the thought of that famous Friday night “I’m mostly doing it to improve myself, though.”  
  
“Good for you, then,” replied her deputy, with a big smile on his face.  
  
“Do you think you’ll ever give it another chance?” he asked almost immediately, the question on the tip of his tongue for a month now.  
  
“Give what another chance?” asked his boss confused.  
  
“You and Regina…” he answered, wondering if it had been a good idea mentioning it.  
  
“Oh!” exclaimed the other “Nope. I don’t think there is any going forward after that disastrous first date.”  
  
“Okay!” replied David, glad he didn’t sound too noisy.  
  
“You know what?” he continued “I think you can indulge a little for today; you didn’t even get to stop for breakfast.”  
  
“Thank you,” replied the blonde. She gave him a big grateful smile, then proceeded to give a bigger bite to her sandwich. She didn’t need anyone’s permission to eat at her own pace, she was just grateful to have someone with whom she could be herself without fear of being judged.  
  
———————————————  
  
“Hello?” Regina answered her phone in a sleepy  voice.  
  
“Regina!” came Mary Margaret’s perky voice from the other end of the phone.  
  
“What time is it?” asked Regina, still unable to open her eyes.  
  
“It’s 7:30 am.” answered the other “Did I wake you up?”  
  
 “Of course you woke me up. It’s 7:30 on a Saturday morning,” pointed out the other.  
  
“You’re right. I’m sorry, I’ll call you later,” said the younger one.  
  
“Mary Margaret?”  
  
“Yes?”’  
  
“Did you want to tell me something?” asked the brunette finally opening her eyes and adjusting to the light in the room.  
  
“Ask you, actually,” admitted the other.  
  
“Go for it.” Regina encouraged her.  
  
“You know I’m expected to give birth in a couple of weeks, right?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Well, I was wondering if you…” Mary Margaret started shyly.  
  
“What? I’m not coming in the room, if that’s what you are about to ask.”  
  
“Oh my god. No, Regina,” said the other promptly “ I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my baby’s godmother.” she finally said in one breath.  
  
“Oh…” said the other sitting upright on her bed; she was speechless.  
  
“So?” encouraged the pregnant one.  
  
“I’d be honored,” answered Regina, gaining back her voice.  
  
“Really?” yelled Mary Margaret, unable to contain her excitement.  
  
“Really. It’s still 7:30 in the morning, you know?”  
  
“Sorry!” replied the other lowering her voice “I have one more thing to ask you, then I’ll let you go back to sleep.”  
  
“What is it?” asked Regina slightly annoyed at how long this conversation was taking.  
  
“Would you like to come here for brunch tomorrow?”  
  
“Oh, sure! What time should I be there?”  
  
“11:30 should be okay.”  
  
“I’ll be there by 11:00” replied Regina, yawning.  
  
“Thank you!” said the other smiling. “I’ll let you go to sleep now.”  
  
“Bye, Mary Margaret,” said the brunette before putting her phone back on its base on her bedside table.  
  
She tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. She kept thinking about the responsibility she had just been given; she had never been anyone’s godmother before. She didn’t know if she was able of being an important role in a kid’s life. She knew she’d do everything in her power to contribute to the kid having a good life, of that she was sure. She was also sure it was the same reason why Mary Margaret had chosen her for such important job.  


* * *

  
  
‘A whole new world’ came blasting from the TV, delivery containers were scattered all around the living room: it was a typical Saturday night at Emma’s apartment. At this point in the movie, ever since she was 10 years old, Emma was usually so immerse into it: singing along Aladdin and Jasmine; dreaming about how cool it would have been to turn her life around completely just like Aladdin had. She had always identified with him the most, especially as she got older; an ex-thief who becomes a prince and marries the intelligent and gorgeous princess? That would have been her wish came true…. She had always been fully aware of the fact that she couldn’t have become a princess herself; but the idea of getting a better life for herself and eventually marrying a girl like Jasmine, always intrigued her.  
Tonight, although she had put on a Disney movie like she always did on her nights off, she couldn’t bring herself to sing along. She was too busy thinking about the conversation with David that same afternoon.  
  
  
“Boss, got a moment?” David asked entering her office.  
  
“Sure!” she replied, placing the files she was reading on her desk. “Aren’t you a little early for your shift?” it was 6:30 pm, and the deputy’s shift started at 7, right when hers ended.  
  
“I was hoping to catch you,” he replied still standing at the door. They had been missing each other the past week, because they always had different shifts. “There is something I want to ask you.”  
  
“Sit, sit,” she said gesturing toward the chair on the other side of the desk “Why so formal?”  
  
“Well…” he started while sitting down “I… I wanted to ask you if you wanted to be my kid’s godmother,” he said in one go.  
  
Emma wasn’t expecting this at all. Yes, they had grown to be really close in these past couple of years working together. She didn’t think she had better friends than him and Ruby; she was sure the feeling was mutual. The thought of David asking her to be his baby’s godmother hadn’t even crossed her mind, though. Subconsciously, she had thought he would ask someone else, someone who could be a good adult figure in the kid’s life.  
  
“Emma?” said David concerned “You still in there?”  
  
“Yes,” replied Emma coming out of her thoughts “I’m still here.”  
  
“So…” David was hesitant at this point “What do you think?”  
  
“I…” the blonde didn’t know what to say “Can I think about it?”  
  
“Sure,” said the other, feeling a little bummed out.  
  
“Hey, thank you for thinking about me.” said Emma noticing his change of expression “It’s just… a big deal for me.”  
  
“Of course.” said David smiling again “Just let me know as soon as possible. The baby is going to be here in a couple of weeks, tops. Mary Margaret and I want to have everything planned out by then.”  
  
“I know!” said Emma. She could actually see her deputy getting more and more anxious as the due date got near. “I’ll let you know soon.”  
  
  
Now, she was sitting on her couch, thinking and rethinking about that conversation. The ending credits were scrolling down her TV screen.  
“I don’t know if I am up for it. To be someone’s godmother is huge.” she thought to herself. She didn’t know if she could commit to something so important. “I can’t go screwing up someone’s life before they are even born.” was her mayor thought. She always felt like she was still a kid herself. At the same time she thought that this was David’s kid, she had to be able to get past her insecurities; it was a big honor that he had thought about her.  
  
She turned off the TV, and picked up the cellphone beside her on the couch. She dialed the station’s number, directly to David’s desk.  
  
“Boss, everything okay?” he picked up after one ring because he had recognized Emma’s number.  
  
“Everything okay,” reassured his boss.  
  
“Good,” replied David relieved “So, what’s up?”  
  
“I’ve made a decision: I’d be honored to be a godmother!” she said enthusiastically.  
  
“Really?” he exclaimed, she could hear him smile through the phone.  
  
“Yeah, really” she answered, smiling back.  
  
“Great! Thank you,” he continued smiling “I’m sure Mary Margaret will be happy too.”  
  
“I’ll let you go back to work now,” said the blonde “Everything okay at the station?”  
  
“Yes,” replied David “All calm here.”  
  
“Good; I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
  
“Have a good night.”  
  
“You too.”  
  
As soon as she had done with the phone call, Emma grabbed one of the containers from the coffee table, and started eating what was left of her dinner. Not before starting the DVD again from the beginning; she was way more relaxed now and was sure she could enjoy the movie as usual. In no time she was singing ‘Arabian Nights’ along with the DVD, with no dilemmas left in her mind.  


* * *

  
  
Regina looked one last time at the clock in her car before turning off the engine. “Shit! I hope Mary Margaret won’t be too mad.” It was 11:25 on Sunday, and she had just parked in front of her friend’s house. She quickly grabbed her handbag form the passenger seat, and almost ran to the door; still looking very graceful doing so.  
  
Mary Margaret opened the door even before the bell had stopped ringing, Regina suspected she was waiting for her behind it.  
  
“Sorry I’m late!” said the brunette as soon as she saw the very much pregnant woman before her; she sure showed all the eight and a half months now.  
  
“It’s okay,” said the other still holding the door “Come in, brunch is ready.”  
  
“O-Okay,” said Regina, not believing she hadn’t been scolded for being late.   
  
She followed her into the dining room, where David was waiting for them.   
  
He quickly got up as soon as he saw them approaching the table; instead of helping Mary Margaret, as Regina supposed he was about to do, he walked toward her. He then proceeded to pull out a chair and say, “Let me get this for you,” giving her one of his usual smiles.  
  
The brunette was getting really suspicious at this point, “Okay, what are you two up to?” she asked, looking from one to the other.  
  
“I…” “Uhmmm…” were their only responses.  
  
“Spill it out,” she said, sitting down on the chair next to the one David had pulled out for her “And I can get my own chair.”  
  
The other two followed her lead and sat at the table.  
  
“So…” the brunette was starting to grow impatient “What is it? You already asked me to be a godmother.”  
  
“Actually, it’s about that…” started Mary Margaret.  
  
“You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” asked Regina offended. She had been thinking some more since the phone call the day before, and was now really excited at the idea.  
  
“No!” Mary Margaret answered quickly, then gave David the look; the ‘you tell her’ look.  
  
“You know how you usually have to pick two people as godparents?” he was talking this time.  
  
“Yeah?” said Regina confused.  
  
“Well…” he continued “I asked Emma to be the other godmother.” Mary Margaret couldn’t bring herself to watch Regina’s reaction.  
  
“You what?” said Regina, putting the pieces together.  
  
“I knew we should’ve told her before,” cried Mary Margaret.  
  
“What’s the big deal anyway?” asked David.  
  
“For starters,” said Regina, you could almost see fire in her eyes, “I’ll have to see her.”  
  
“Oh, right,” replied David.  
  
“You can’t back out now,” said Mary Margaret in the same fake innocent voice she had used since they were kids “Can you?”  
  
“I could,” said the brunette, quickly calming down, “but I won’t. You know I always keep my word.”  
  
The two expecting parents smiled widely.  
  
“So, you are okay with this?” asked Mary Margaret.  
  
“‘Okay’ is too much,” replied Regina, it would have taken her a lot of adjustments “I will be, eventually.”  
  
The other two were still smiling at her: they almost looked creepy; they resembled  too much those fake couple you find in pictures frames.  
  
“I have been promised brunch,” said the brunette, feeling a bit uncomfortable “I’m starving.”  
  
“On it,” said David getting up and walking toward the kitchen to get their food.  


* * *

  
  
Although she was honored at the idea of being a godmother to David’s kid, Emma was still wrapping her head around the whole situation. Her deputy was about to add another worry to her list.  
  
They had been sitting in the patrol car for an hour now, it was a clear Sunday afternoon, and everything around them was quite. They had been trying to spot Leroy vandalizing yet another of Gold’s propriety; they hadn’t been lucky so far.  
  
“Emma…” started David, readjusting himself in the passenger seat.  
  
“David?” said Emma, furrowing her eyebrows, he rarely called her by her name.  
  
“There is something I should tell you,” this whole situation was getting more awkward and complicated than he and his wife had hoped for.  
  
“Shoot!” Emma encouraged him.  
  
“Regina is going to be the other godmother,” said David in one breath, hoping she would take it better than the other woman had the same morning.  
  
“Oh…” the blonde didn’t know how to reply “I guess I’ll have to see her again?” she asked at last.  
  
“Yeah, I guess so,” replied David. He was actually happy his boss hadn’t changed her mind about being a godmother altogether.  
  
“Okay,” said the other, she was really not okay with this, but had no intention to show it to the man sitting next to her.  
  
“Look, if you-"  David’s sentence was cut off by a loud noise. It was Leroy approaching Gold’s shop in his very old and very damaged motorcycle.  
  
“Here he is,” pointed out Emma, reaching for the car door handle, gesturing David to do the same.  
  
Emma slipped out of the car without making any noise, David followed her lead. Leroy was now standing in front of the shop, a spray paint in his right hand. Emma approached him from his left, trying to get between him and his motorcycle; David was cornering him from the other side.  
When Emma was just about to pass the vehicle, Leroy became aware of David’s presence on his right, and tried to run for it. Emma seized him by his collar and threw him a bit too harshly on his motorcycle, getting the handcuffs from her belt.  
  
“You are under arrest-“ Emma started saying, handcuffing him.  
  
“What are you arresting me for, sister?” protested Leroy.  
  
“Vandalism!” said Emma, ”see? there is paint on the wall,” she pointed to a tiny red splash, then proceeded to remind him his Miranda rights.  
  
As soon as she was done, she placed him in the back seat of the patrol car; her and her deputy quickly got in the front seats and started driving away.  
  
“I didn’t do anything, sister,” kept protesting him.  
  
“Don’t push it, Leroy,” suggested David.  
  
“No, you know what?” said Emma irritated, still digesting David’s latest news, “You know what you did. You were about to vandalize Gold’s property, as you have done so many times before; but this time is different because you got caught with your hands in the cookie jar.” She was really over Leroy’s attitude: just last month, he had gone as far as vandalizing Gold’s house, scaring the living crap out of the owner, who thought there were burglars in the house. The only reason why they had caught him that time was because they had  had an anonymous caller saying they had seen Leroy near the house at the time of the crime.  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” said the man they had in custody.  
  
“You are really pushing it now,” said Emma; she was getting more and more impatient behind the wheal, so much that she had to park the car. She turned around to face him and added: “You still haven’t apologized to Gold, even after you lost your bet last month; and you have the audacity to go and vandalize his place, again? Grow some balls, man,” leaving him speechless.  
  
“That’s what I thought,” said the sheriff, turning around.  
  
“You okay to drive?” asked David concerned.  
  
“I am now.” replied the blonde, pressing her foot on the accelerator.  
  
  
Thirty minutes later, when they had thrown Leroy in jail once again, and filled out all the paperwork for the arrest; David approached Emma’s desk.  
  
“You could have told me you weren’t okay with Regina being a godmother.” he said.  
  
“How did you…?” replied her.  
  
“We have arrested Leroy multiple times before, and you have never been so harsh on him,” pointed out her deputy.  
  
“Was I that obvious?” she asked embarrassed.  
  
“A little,” replied David “Plus I know you: you are too professional. Even Leroy can’t get to you, usually.”  
  
“Sorry!” apologized the other.  
  
“You don’t have to feel obligated to be a godmother, if you don’t feel like it,” reminded him.  
  
“I do. I want to. I want to be a good friend for you,” admitted Emma “I just need some time to get used to the idea.”  
  
“Sounds fair,” replied David, he was glad Emma hadn’t changed her mind.  
  
Emma, on the other hand, was really hoping she would adjust to the idea really quickly; the baby was going to be born really soon, and there was no backing out after that.  


* * *

  



	3. Chapter 3

It was a late afternoon, Regina and Belle were discussing the last few details for the new exhibition they’d be holding at the gallery, starting in a few days.  
  
“So,” said Belle, looking through some paperwork “I feel pretty confident about this one.”  
  
“I trust your judgement,” said Regina, looking over the other’s shoulder “you said we should be getting all the paintings pretty soon, right?”  
  
“Yes,” replied the other “first thing tomorrow morning.”  
  
“Good!” said the brunette smiling “make sure I’ll get to talk to the artist again before the opening.”  
  
“Will do!” replied the other, adding a note to her now finally shrinking list of things to do.  
  
“That’s all for tonight?” asked Regina.  
  
“Yes,” replied Belle, yawning “do you want to grab dinner before heading home?”  
  
“Sure,” replied the brunette, when her cellphone started ringing.  She grabbed it from her handbag on the desk in front of them, and answered without checking the caller ID: “Hello?”  
  
“Regina?” came a frantic voice from the other side "It’s David. The baby is about to be here any minute now. How soon can you be at the hospital?”  
  
“I’m on my way,” the brunette replied quickly.  
  
“Good,” said the soon to be dad, and hung up.  
  
“Who was that?” asked Belle, as soon as her friend had placed her phone back in her purse.  
  
“David,” replied Regina “the baby is almost here. Rain check on dinner?”  
  
“Of course,” replied her friend smiling “congratulations to the parents; and to you, godmother.”  
  
Regina looked at her for a moment, still getting used to being called that, then smiled and said: “Thank you!”  


* * *

  
  
At the same time, on the other side of town, Emma was swamped with work. They had to require a new deputy when David had taken the last week off to be with Mary Margaret. With him and Ruby as her only deputies, they were already understaffed, now they desperately needed someone else working with them.  
In reality, Emma still had a lot of work to do: August, the substitute deputy, still needed a lot of basic training. Of course they wouldn’t send someone who had more experience, and a week hadn’t been enough to put him up to date with how things worked at the station. Especially considering how on top of their usual workload, both Emma and Ruby, had to spent some of their time training him.  
  
“See,” said Emma pointing at the monitor in front of them “you have to make sure you have all the information right; you’d be amazed at how many people got out of a ticket because of a comma in the wrong place in their address.”  
  
“Got it,” said the other, staring at Emma, instead of the form she was showing him.  
  
“Stop staring at me,” said the blonde “and focus on the monitor.”  
  
“Sorry, sheriff,” said August “it’s just that…”  
  
“What?” said the blonde exhausted; she had had a long day, long week actually, and all she wanted to do was go home and take a long bath.  
  
“I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me one of these days,” he said at last.  
  
“Like a date?” asked Emma, furrowing her eyebrows.  
  
“Yeah?!” answered him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
“I’m going to stop you right here, pal,” said the blonde immediately “I’m only interested in women,” putting emphasis on the ‘only’.  
  
“Oh,” he said, “I didn’t know.”  
  
“Can we focus on our job now?” asked the blonde in a tired voice.  
  
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered in a business like voice.  
  
As soon as she started explaining the last form from the beginning, because she was sure he hadn’t gotten a single word of what she had said so far, her cellphone started buzzing.  
  
“Hello?” she answered, glad to have a distraction.  
  
“It’s David,” came his hurried voice, “the baby will be here soon. Can you come at the hospital tonight?”  
  
“I’ll be there as soon as I can get out of here.” She really wanted to just go home and relax, but now the baby had become first priority.  
  
“Awesome, thank you,” he said before hanging up.  
  
“If you need to be somewhere,” said August “I’ll take care of things here,” gesturing at the empty room.  
  
“I’ll wait for Ruby to start her shift,” replied the sheriff, not trusting the man alone at the station “it’s only a half hour. But thank you.”  
  
“No problem,” said the other “now show me again the ticket form.”  
  
Emma sighed, and started explaining the same thing for the third time that night.  


* * *

  
  
A couple of hours later, Mary Margaret was in her hospital bed, with her new baby in her arms; David and Regina standing on either side of the bed.  
Regina was trying to familiarize with the new addition to Mary Margaret’s family, looking at the little bundle of blankets with curious eyes.  
  
“Do you want to hold her?” proposed Mary Margaret, after a while.  
  
“I…” started the brunette, she thought this moment would come in a couple of days, at least, “sure.”  
  
The woman on the bed gently placed her daughter safely into her friend’s arms.  
Regina looked down at her at last, a brand new tiny human being sleeping in her arms; a sudden rush of love running through her.  
  
  
  
A few minutes later, there was a light knock on the open door. The trio in the room looked toward it, and found Emma at the stand with a giant balloon reading ‘Congratulations’ in her hand.  
  
“Come in,” said David, happy she had been able to make it that same night.  
  
“Congratulations,” said the blonde, smiling at the couple, who smiled back at her.  
  
“Where is — “ she started asking, before realizing the new born was in the brunette’s arms.  
  
“Regina,” she exclaimed embarrassed.  
  
“Miss Swan,” replied the brunette, coldly.  
  
“I’m sorry it took me longer than I had anticipated,” said the blonde handing the balloon to David “things are crazy at the station.”  
  
“Don’t worry,” replied her deputy, placing the balloon next to the even bigger teddy bear Regina had brought earlier “you are finally here now.”  
  
“That’s all that matters,” said Mary Margaret “would you like to hold the baby?” bringing Regina’s attention back to the other three adults in the room.  
  
Emma wasn’t expecting this at all. She looked at the baby in the brunette’s arms on the other side of the bed, and said: “Another day, maybe? She looks so peaceful right now.” She was glad she had an excuse for now.  
  
“Sure,” replied Mary Margaret, in her postpartum daze.  
  
“What’s her name, by the way?” said the blonde after a few minutes, realizing she still hadn’t asked.  
  
“Violet,” replied Mary Margaret, re-positioning herself on the bed.  
  
“That’s such a lovely name,” said the blonde, suppressing a yawn.  
  
“Thank you!” replied the newly mom, then added: “You look tired. Why don’t you and Regina go get a cup of coffee?” Mary Margaret turned around toward Regina, she had actually felt the brunette’s gaze burning through her skull.  
  
Emma had noticed it too, she replied: “It’s okay, I can grab one on my way out later,” looking from the woman on the bed to the one standing next to it, who were now sharing a silent conversation. She wondered if that’s what meant for the two women being both Violet’s godmothers: having to go through a long series of awkward meetings, just like the one they were experiencing right now.  


* * *

  
  
“Was it really that awkward?” asked Kathryn, pouring herself another glass of wine.  
  
“Awkward is an understatement,” replied Regina, taking a sip of her own wine.  
  
They were at Regina’s, a usual night in for the two old friends; they were discussing Violet’s baptism.  
  
“Uh-uh,” said the blonde, her mouth full of take out food.  
  
“I mean,” continued the other “how long can someone be in contact with a horrible date?”  
  
“Apparently, for life,” said Kathryn.  
  
“That’s not funny,” protested the brunette, she was now at her third glass of wine.  
  
“It’s the truth, though,” pointed out the other “come on, tell me what happened.”  
  
“Nothing really,” replied Regina “we were cordial, at best, at the ceremony.”  
  
“And after?” asked her friend, encouraging her to talk.  
  
“After,” continued the brunette reluctantly “we took some pictures. Some really awkward pictures of just the two of us with the baby. I’m sure Violet will have a good laugh looking at them when she is all grown up.”  
  
“That bad?” asked the other, trying not to laugh. She had seen how clumsy Regina would get when being forced to take a picture.  
  
“Yup,” replied Regina, placing her empty take out container on the table.  
  
“Did you do anything afterward?” said Kathryn, asking yet another question. It was their usual routine: she had to ask as many questions as she could till Regina hadn’t spilled all out.  
  
“Yes,” replied the brunette “Mary Margaret wanted to go out for lunch, and I didn’t have the guts to say no.”  
  
“You didn’t have the guts to say no to Mary Margaret, since when?” asked Kathryn, squinting her eyes “or you wanted to see how things went between you and Emma?”  
  
“Maybe a little,” admitted the other, mentally kicking herself for starting drinking before dinner had been delivered earlier.  
  
  
  
  
“We should celebrate with lunch,” said Mary Margaret, after the last picture had been taken. The two newly parents, and the two godmothers were standing on the sidewalk in front of the church; Violet was in his stroller next to them.  
  
“Good idea,” said her husband “what do you guys think?”  
  
Regina had been checking Emma out since she had shown up a few hours earlier that day. The blonde was wearing a pair of elegant black pants, a white shirt tucked in, her hair were in a perfect braid; the brunette hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off her. “Why must you be so attractive,” she thought to herself “but we can’t seem to get along, at all?”  
  
The brunette was the first one to answer: “Sounds good,” curios to see if things could go better with the blonde.  
  
Emma, on the other hand, had been caught by surprise by Regina’s answer. She was sure she’d decline; the brunette had been staring at her all morning. The blonde was pretty positive she had been secretly judging her for her outfit. “I mean,” the blonde thought to herself “look at her: she looks so elegant and sexy at the same time, and I look like… me.”  
Regina was wearing a simple black  dress, not too showing by Mary Margaret’s request, but tight enough to hug her in all the right places, and a pair of stilettos. Her hair was perfectly curled, left loose on her shoulders. The blonde was intimidated by the other’s general presence, and a bit turned on too, but that was probably inappropriate given the circumstances.  
  
“Emma?” repeated David “Are you okay with lunch?”  
  
“I…” the blonde cleared her throat “sure.”  
  
Despite Regina’s first good intentions of seeing if things would be better between her and Emma, lunch didn’t change the situation between the two women.  
Regina was still too stubborn to start a real conversation herself; Emma was convinced the other thought she was a sloppy person and wanted nothing to do with her.  
Lunch had been spent with Mary Margaret and David doing all the talking, mostly about the baby. For the two women it was another awkward meeting to add to the now growing list.  
  
  
  
As soon as she had finished explaining how lunch had gone, Regina said: “Can we change the subject?” Then immediately added: “How is Frederick doing?” not giving her friend time to answer her previous question, or make some comment about the story she had just told.  
  
“He is doing great,” replied Kathryn “he only needs to go to therapy once a month now. He’ll be back to work in no time.”  
  
“That sounds awesome,” said the brunette, happy for her friend.  
  
The blonde smiled, then asked: “Where is Belle, again?” she had asked that question already, but was probably too tipsy to remember at the moment.  
  
“She had a date,” replied Regina.  
  
“With whom?” asked the blonde.  
  
“She didn’t say.”  
  
“Good for her, though.”  
  
“Yeah,” said the brunette, raising her glass of wine toward her friend.  
  
“Cheers,” they both said, clinking their glasses together.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Come on, Emma,” begged Ruby for the third time that day.  
  
“I don’t know…” replied the blonde.  
  
“We are going to have fun, I promise,” said the other.  
  
They were in Emma’s office, Emma sitting behind the desk with her feet on it, Ruby sitting on the other side of the desk. The deputy was trying to persuade the sheriff to go out with her that night.  
  
“Who else is going to be there?” asked the blonde once again.  
  
“My date, and a few of her friends,” replied the other “oh, and I asked Mulan, too.”  
  
“Why can’t you go on a date just the two of you?” asked Emma, not really in the mood to go to a club.  
  
“Because it’s not our first date,” said Ruby “and we think it would be fun to have a girls’ night out.”  
  
The blonde thought about it for a couple of minutes more, then caved, “Okay, I’ll come with you tonight.”  
  
“Great,” said the other, hopping off the desk “thank you.”  
  
“Uh-uh,” was the sheriff’s only response “now go back to work.”  
  
“Yes, boss,” said Ruby, before getting out of the office, closing the door behind her.  
  
Emma tried to convince herself she needed a night out. She hadn’t really been out at all recently, despite Ruby trying to get her out of the house every other day.  
“I’m going to have fun tonight,” she thought to herself, before resuming her work.  
  
  
  
  
“How long have you been dating this woman?” asked Regina, still not convinced about the whole situation.  
  
“A month, give or take,” replied Belle “why?”  
  
“I don’t feel comfortable with this,” said the brunette, shifting awkwardly in her seat.  
  
“No kidding,” said Kathryn sarcastically “just enjoy yourself.”  
  
“I’ll try,” replied Regina, squinting her eyes at her friend.  
  
“Here she is,” said Belle after a few minutes. The woman she had pointed was closely followed by two other women; the club’s lights were too dim to make out their faces. After Belle had thrown herself at her date, kissing her on the lips, the other two women approached the table.  
  
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Regina recognizing the blonde.  
  
“Crap,” said Emma as soon as she spotted Regina sitting at the table.  
  
“What?” asked Ruby.  
  
“That’s Regina…” let it trail off Emma.  
  
“Regina, Regina?” asked Ruby confused.  
  
“Yeah,” replied Emma embarrassed, trying to hide behind her friend.  
  
The other women, except Regina, looked at them puzzled.  
  
“I thought her name was Gina,” said Ruby a bit too loudly.  
  
“Miss Swan,” said Regina harshly “I never gave you permission to call me Gina.” Her two friends finally understanding what was going on.  
  
“I didn’t…” started the blonde.  
  
“I got confused,” said Ruby quickly “sorry,” she smiled at the brunette, trying to charm her.  
  
“Oh, save it,” said Regina, before getting up and walking toward the restrooms.  
  
  
  
“Regina?” Belle called out for her, entering the restrooms.  
  
The brunette got out of one of the stools, and placed herself in front of the sink, hands on the sink’s countertop.  
  
“This is ridiculous,” she said looking at her reflection in the mirror in front of her.  
  
“I know,” admitted her friend “I didn’t know they were friends, though.”  
  
“It’s not your fault,” told her Regina. She was pretty mad, but at the situation, not at Belle.  
  
“Thanks,” replied the other “do you want to leave?”  
  
“No,” said the brunette “I can handle it for one night, I think.”  
  
“Let’s go back out there then?” said Belle, glad her friend didn’t run screaming.  
  
“Give me a few minutes,” said the brunette, retouching her red lipstick.  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, outside, Ruby had taken Emma a few steps away from the others.  
  
“You didn’t tell me she was hot,” she said once out of earshot.  
  
“Didn’t I?” replied the blonde, too busy thinking about how the brunette could really pull off any kind of outfit. Regina was wearing tight pants, a simple t-shirt, a leather jacket, and over the knee boots; all in black. “Black definitely is her color,” thought Emma, liking her lips. Although she hadn’t liked how the night had started, seeing the brunette storm off, had been quite delightful from where she was standing.  
  
“You still in there?” asked Ruby, “let’s go back to the table,” she said taking her friend by the elbow.  
  
When she got back from the restroom, Regina found all the other women sitting down, an empty seat left for her besides Kathryn. After all the needed presentations, Ruby and Belle left them for the dance floor. Kathryn started making polite conversation with both Emma and Mulan; Regina sat there silently staring at the people dancing.  
  
  
  
“She isn’t that bad once you get to know her,” pointed out Kathryn, getting in the car she was sharing with Regina, a few hours later. It was a drinking night, and none of them had driven there. Belle had left in another car with Ruby and her friends.  
  
“If you say so,” said Regina, not convinced “what do you even have in common?”  
  
“We talked about Boston,” said the blonde “it was nice.”  
  
“She is from Boston?” asked the brunette.  
  
“Not originally,” said her friend “do you know anything about her?”  
  
“Apparently not,” replied Regina.  
  
“It wasn’t a bad night overall,” said Kathryn.  
  
“No,” replied Regina sarcastically “the highlight was when Ruby approached me, said: ‘What’s the big deal? Mulan and I had one disastrous date, and now we are friends,’ then threw up on my boots,” getting a weird look from the cabdriver.  
  
“I guess you are right,” conceded Kathryn, trying very hard not too laugh.  


* * *

  
  
It was an unusual Wednesday afternoon for Emma: she hadn’t had a whole day off in the middle of the week in ages. After having slept in till 10 that morning, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She had opted for driving around in her yellow bug, and that’s what she was doing right now, when she suddenly craved a good hot cocoa. She parked at the next available spot, and looked around. “I have never really been in this part of town,” she thought to herself “but I guess I’ll find someone who has hot cocoa around here.” She got out of the car, adjusting her hair in a ponytail.  
  
Ten minutes later, she was walking out of a coffee shop, happily sipping her hot beverage. She still had no real plans for the day, so she just started walking aimlessly around. She looked at all the shops windows on her left, without getting inside; until she spotted  something in one of them and immediately hid behind a plant placed in front of it.  
  
“That can’t be,” she thought “and even if it is, I should start acting like an adult and be able to show my face, if I want to.”  
  
After a few long breathes, she marched toward the open glass door. Before she could set foot inside, she was stopped by a voice coming from behind her: “Excuse me,” it was a man’s voice.   
  
She turned around to face him, and said: “Yes?”  
  
“I couldn’t help noticing how gorgeous you are,” said the stranger, trying to charm her “I was wondering if you’d like to pose for one of my paintings.”  
  
Emma looked at the man speechless, she had had unwanted compliments from men on her beauty all her life, but she had never received such an offer before.   
  
“Well…” she started, when a voice from behind her made her heart stop: “Miss Swan, what are you doing here?” confirming it was Regina she had spotted just two minutes before.  
  
The blonde turned around again to face the other woman, and her throat went completely dry. The brunette was standing there in a black pantsuit, with a white shirt who could barely hold in her generous cleavage; her right hand placed on her hip.  
  
“Have you lost the ability to talk, Miss Swan?” said the brunette, when Emma hadn’t done anything, but stand there with her mouth hanging.  
  
“Yes,” finally said the blonde, clearing her throat “I mean, no! I was just walking around, I thought I had seen you, and…”  
  
“And what?” replied the brunette irritated “say hi? I think you are more interested in a change of career.” pointing at the very confused man behind them.  
  
“What?” asked Emma, not understanding the insinuation.  
  
“Marc over here is a painter, wasn’t he offering you to pose for one of his pieces?” said the brunette.  
  
Marc must have been the stranger who had started talking to her, thought the blonde, “I am in no way interested in a change of career,” she protested.  
  
“That’s too bad,” said the man “but it’s true: I approached her.”  
  
“You can’t even defend yourself anymore?” said the brunette “I’m disappointed in you, Miss Swan.”  
  
“I don’t need anyone defending me,” replied the blonde, getting irritated too “there is nothing to defend here. Plus, what do you care if I change my career?”  
  
“I don’t,” said Regina, before turning around and closing the door in Emma’s face, her nose in the air.  
  
  
  
Once alone with the man, the blonde just muttered a low “Sorry,” and walked away. She couldn’t wrap her head around why things always got so heated between her and Regina, and over nothing too. As she was throwing out her now cold beverage, she remembered her conversation with Kathryn at the pub a few weeks earlier. Everything now made more sense: Kathryn had told her Regina was the owner of an art gallery; that’s why she was so interested in her working with that man, it must have been one of her clients. That still didn’t explain the brunette’s overreaction. Of one thing she was sure: good or bad, when Regina was around, things were never boring. She just wished they could have some good moments too, considering they’d both have to be in the baby’s life.  


* * *

  
  
It was a chilly November evening, Regina had stopped at Mary Margaret's house just to say hi; she had been dropping in a lot more since Violet had been born three months earlier.  
  
"You are really getting good at it," pointed out the younger one.  
  
"I guess I am," replied the brunette, rocking the baby to sleep.  
  
Mary Margaret had gladly accepted Regina's help after she had done feeding Violet. She was still breastfeeding, and she was now more tired than ever.  
  
Once the baby was finally asleep, Regina placed her in her crib, and the two women left the nursery; carefully avoiding making any noise.  
  
"Have you been sleeping at all?” asked the brunette.  
  
"Not really," replied the other, sitting on the coach in the living room "I'm exhausted."  
  
"I can tell," said Regina, looking slightly worried.  
  
"It's okay," replied the younger one "David will be here any minute now. Do you want to watch some tv?"  
  
"Sure," replied Regina, making herself more comfortable next to her friend.  
  
  
Ten minutes into a rerun of How to get away with murder, Violet’s crying came through the baby monitor.  
  
"I'm coming," said Mary Margaret startled, she had fallen asleep as soon as she had turned on the tv.  
  
“I’ll go check on her,” said Regina, gently placing a hand on the other's shoulder "you rest."  
  
"Thank you," Mary Margaret smiled gratefully.  
  
  
  
  
As soon as the crying coming through the baby monitor chased , Mary Margaret heard keys turning into the front door, and a voice calling for her: "Honey?"  
  
"Living room," she replied instinctively.  
  
"Guess who I brought with me?" asked David, his voice getting closer.  
  
A moment later, him and Emma were in the room with her.  
  
"Oh," said Mary Margaret, knowing how awkward things were between the two godmothers.  
  
"I hope it's okay," said her husband, giving her the look "Emma was about to have another lonely dinner at home."  
  
"I don't mind, really," said the blonde, tucking her hands in her rear pockets "I'm used to it."  
  
"Of course it's okay," said Mary Margaret, pointing at the baby monitor with her eyes "it's just that..."  
  
As soon as all three of them stopped talking to stare at the object Mary Margaret had just pointed, Regina's low voice came through it. She was singing a lullaby to Violet; it was very soothing.  
  
"Oh," said the blonde, recognizing the voice "I don't have to stay."  
  
"Nonsense," said David immediately "I invited you."  
  
"Yeah," added Mary Margaret, patting the empty space next to her "sit, sit."  
  
Emma sat down without protesting, and smiled.  
  
"Would you like a drink?" asked David.  
  
"Yes, please," replied the blonde, feeling like she'd need it.  
  
As David was stepping out of the room, Regina was stepping in. She greeted him just by placing a hand on his arm, he awkwardly smiled at her; which was strange, because he always had a toothpaste ad kind of smile on his face.  
  
It didn't take the brunette long to realize the reason behind the forced smile.  
  
"Miss Swan," she said, in her coldest voice "I see you haven't changed career, after all," looking the blonde up and down. She was still wearing her badge on her belt, she had forgotten to take it off at the end of her shift.  
  
"I had no intention of doing that," protested the blonde, jumping off the coach instinctively.  
  
"You don't have to get up for me, Miss Swan," smirked the brunette.  
  
"I did not..." said the blonde, slowly sitting down again.  
  
"I'm not following," said Mary Margaret, her lack of sleep was slowing down her reactions.  
  
"It's nothing," said Emma.  
  
"Nothing to follow," said Regina almost simultaneously "I have to go anyway."  
  
"Oh okay," said the younger one, still not understanding "I'll walk you to the door."  
  
Regina gave a last look at the blonde, who felt goosebumps all over, and followed her childhood friend to the front door.  
  
  
  
The moment she was left alone, Emma gave out a big breath, she didn't realize she had been holding it in ever since she had heard Regina's beautiful voice coming out of the baby monitor. “Does she have to call me 'Miss Swan' all the time?" she thought "I do have a name."  
  
"Emma?" it was David calling her this time, causing her to startle a little.  
  
"Sorry," he added quickly, approaching the couch "here is your drink, I made it double."  
  
"Thank you," replied the blonde; chugging her drink in one gulp, and thinking "here's to awkward meetings."  


* * *

  
  
It was noon on Christmas day, Emma was still in bed, under her big yellow comforter, avoiding the outside world. She had never been a big fan of this holiday, or holidays in general. She never had the opportunity to really celebrate any of them while in the system; and once out, she was too old to really get into the spirit. This year was different, though: she had to respect her duty as godmother, she had even bought a few presents for the baby.  
  
After a few more minutes of hiding under the covers, she let out a low moan, and got out of bed. She was wearing light plaid pajamas, which was one thing she did love about this time of year: the comfy clothes. And hot cocoa, of course; which was what she was about to make herself. She stretched out a bit, and walked into the kitchen, yawning. She had been at the station till late the night before, having double shift, so Ruby could cover for both her and David the next day. David had insisted Emma would at least pass by the house for Violet, she couldn’t bring herself to say no.  
  
She was now sitting at the kitchen table, sipping her hot cocoa, when her cellphone buzzed with a new text.  
  
“Boss, still sleeping?” read Ruby’s text.  
  
“Just got up. What’s up?” replied the blonde, and placed her phone back on the table.  
  
“Nothing, just checking in. What time are you going at David’s?” the reply came in not even a minute later.  
  
“I’ll get ready as soon as I’m done with my hot cocoa.” she typed in the blonde, then immediately sent another text: “Is there a particular outfit to wear on Christmas when you’re a godmother?”  
  
“How should I know?”  
  
“Always so helpful. :P”  
  
“You know it ;) Pass by the station when you are done? I’m bored.”  
  
“I’ll try to,” was Emma’s last reply to her friend, before placing her cellphone on the table once again, and focusing on the beverage in front of her.  
  
After a couple of minutes of scanning through her closet, she opted for a red plaid button down shirt, and a pair of black jeans. She was almost out the door, now wearing another layer on: a black coat, a grey beanie, and black boots, when she retraced her steps to grab the bag with Violet’s gifts. Once out of the apartment building, she got into her yellow bug, and drove toward David’s house.  
  
If she didn’t know David’s address by heart, she would have driven right past the house. It was so covered in Christmas decorations, that the blonde thought that’s how Santa’s house must have looked like if he were real.  
  
She got out of the car, after finding a empty spot a few houses away; holding the bag in her right hand.  
  
“Emma,” Mary Margaret exclaimed after opening the door, hugging her unexpectedly “Merry Christmas.”  
  
“Merry Christmas,” replied the blonde, hugging her back with her free arm.  
  
  
  
  
Regina was in her foyer, looking herself in the mirror, carefully adjusting her red pendant earrings. She was getting ready to go to the usual Christmas dinner at Mary Margaret’s. She had never celebrated Christmas as a child, her mother was against that kind of thing, and her father… well, he did everything Cora told him to. She had only started celebrating it once her childhood friend had started inviting her at her house. It wasn’t that bad of a tradition for the brunette: she’ didn’t mind spending a few hours with Mary Margaret and David. This year she was even looking forward to it: with the addition of Violet, she had bought a lot of extra presents just for her.  
  
She was now driving in her black Mercedes, when she noticed the yellow bug a few houses down from her destination; she was almost sure it was the same car she had spotted leaving the house all those moons back. If it was indeed the same car, she wasn’t going to let Emma Swan ruin this special day.  
She parked right in front of the house, and got out of the car: a couple of bags in her left hand, and a tray of food in her right one.  
  
A few seconds later, she was greeted by her childhood friend: “Merry Christmas, Regina.” she said with a big smile “let me help you with that” taking the bags from the brunette’s hand.  
  
“Merry Christmas to you,” replied Regina, smiling back “You know you missed a spot out there?”  
  
“Where?” replied Mary Margaret in a high pitched voice.  
  
The brunette smirked and said: “I’m just teasing you” following the other into the living room. Said room was also full of Christmas decorations, with a big Christmas tree placed at the far end corner.  
  
  
  
The blonde jumped off the coach she was sitting on, as soon as she saw the brunette approaching the room; she didn’t know what it was about the other woman that always had her on the edge. She quickly sat down again, remembering their last meeting in this same room. The brunette was wearing a simple red dress she had bought for the occasion. A simple dress that just because worn by Regina turned into the most beautiful piece of clothing; or at least that’s what Emma thought.  
  
“Merry Christmas,” said the blonde, adding a murmured “Miss Mills” trying to get back at the other woman for always calling her ‘Miss Swan’.  
  
The brunette frowned, then remembered the promise she had made herself in the car. She replied: “Merry Christmas, dear,” giving the blonde the brightest smile Emma had ever seen on the other’s face, the first smile she had seen on the woman’s face ever. For a moment the blonde thought she was smiling at her, then she heard footsteps behind her. David was approaching the coach with Violet in his arm, and Regina was definitely looking at the baby when she started smiling. Emma turned a few different shades of red for thinking the smile was reserved just for her.  
  
Regina, her hands now empty after placing the tray on the coffee table, walked toward David and said: “Merry Christmas,” to which the blond replied it back; then the brunette took Violet from David’s arm and said: “Merry Christmas to you, princess,” in the sweetest voice she could muster. The blonde looked at her almost in awe; she couldn’t understand how this was the same woman who always treated her with such coldness.  
  
“I’ll take this to the kitchen,” said David, grabbing the tray from the coffee table.  
  
“Why don’t you open your gift?” said Mary Margaret to the brunette, who was now sitting next to the blonde, with Violet still in her arms “I’ll take her while you open it.” She then grabbed a small box from under the tree, and handed it to Regina.  
  
The brunette opened it, and found a small feather pendant inside. “It’s beautiful,” said the oldest one, sincerely “thank you.”  
  
“You’re welcome,” said the other “I got you two a similar one, as a thank you for being such good godmothers,” looking from one woman to the other, smiling.  
  
Regina turned around toward the woman sitting next to her, and just now noticed the yellow feather around the blonde’s neck; hers was red.  
  
She turned around again and just smiled at her childhood friend, repeating to herself she wasn’t going to let anyone ruin this day. The blonde lightly touched her new pendant, and said: “They are really beautiful. Thank you again.”  
  
  
“I’ll go call David,” said Mary Margaret, replacing her daughter in Regina’s arms “we can open all your gifts now that Violet is awake,” leaving the two women and the baby alone in the room. Regina was glad she could keep herself occupied with Violet; Emma was glad this meeting hadn’t been as disastrous as the others, yet. They both looked at the baby’s in the brunette’s lap, and smiled; without noticing the other was smiling too.  
  
  
  
  
“You should have seen,” said Emma, sitting at her deputy’s desk an hour later “she got the kid so many gifts, that my three were no competition against them.”  
  
“Was it supposed to be a competition?” asked the other.  
  
“Well,” replied the blonde “I guess not, but still…”  
  
“I supposed she can afford all those gifts,” pointed out Ruby “You know? I finally remembered why she looked so familiar that night at the club.” She had tried to remember where she had seen the brunette before, ever since that night.  
  
“How do you know her?” asked the blonde, curious.  
  
“She is Cora Mills’ daughter,” said her friend, excited.  
  
“Who?” Emma didn’t know what she was talking about.  
  
“Haven’t you ever heard of Cora Mills’?” asked the other, like it was common knowledge “she used to have this show on tv, called ‘Cora’d’. She was a lawyer who would catch people in illegal situations; she’d wear a mask and she would say ‘you’ve been Cora’d’ as soon as she caught said person in the act.”  
  
“How did nobody notice it was her?” asked Emma, not understanding how she could pull it off.  
  
“It was a movies kind of mask,” said Ruby “you couldn’t really tell it was her till the very last minute.”  
  
“Oh,” replied the other, tilting her head, blonde locks let loose on her shoulders.  
  
“You sure you have never heard of her?” asked her deputy once again “she was big in the late ‘80s.”  
  
“Positive,” replied the blonde “it must have been when I was still in the system.”  
  
“Right,” said the other, then added: “You know what? Cora Mills had a bad reputation back then, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the reason why your hot co-godmother is so bitchy.”  
  
“She is not exactly bitchy,” said Emma “she is just… cold, I guess.” thinking about the last information her friend had just given her. David had never mentioned this to her, but then again, he wasn’t known for spilling out other people’s secrets; she had always liked this about him.  
  
“Anyway,” continued Ruby “why didn’t you stay for dinner?”  
  
“Mary Margaret said I should stay to taste Regina’s famous lasagna,” replied the blonde “but I didn’t want to intrude.”  
  
“Yeah,” the other said with a smirk on her face “taste her lasagna. That’s how you call it these days?”  
  
“Ruby!” protested Emma, her eyes popping out of her head.  
  
“Sorry,” said the other, not being sorry at all, then added: “Maybe next Christmas you’ll get to stay for dinner, because you’ll be dating an even hotter woman,” wiggling her eyebrows at her friend.  
  
“Yeah, maybe.” said the blonde, not really convinced by the last statement. In her 30 years, she had never seen someone nearly as gorgeous as Regina Mills. She couldn’t really understand how she could have so many contrasting feelings for one person.  
  
  
  
  
Regina was having a similar dilemma: she couldn’t understand how she could find someone so irritating and so attractive at the same. She had been thinking that ever since the blonde had left earlier that day. She found the blonde to be somehow childish, she wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing; but of one thing she was sure: she had to fight very hard against her instinct to stare at her every time they were in the same room. She may not share Emma’s fashion sense, but hell, the blonde could pull it off so well; the brunette especially loved how her muscled arms fit in her always tight shirts. The last meeting hadn’t been that disastrous, after all, which made the brunette think that maybe they had started going into the right direction. It was a big maybe; she just wasn’t sure why she wanted things to work between her and the blonde. It didn’t even have to turn into something romantic, she just thought they could maybe get along if they had started things with the right foot.  
  
“Regina?” called Mary Margaret, bringing her back to reality “could you pass me the salad?”  
  
“Sure,” replied the brunette, trying to focus on her surrounding.  
  
  
  
What neither of them knew was that, pretty soon, they’d be forced to spend quite a lot of time together…  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

It was 5 am on a cold mid-January day, Emma was sleeping at her desk. She had a late shift the day before, the streets were predicted to get very icy during the night, so she decided to spend it at the station. She had her head on her desk, her mouth open, drooling just a little bit on the paperwork under her head.  
  
“Emma?” Ruby’s unusual low voice woke her up.  
  
The blonde jumped on the spot, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand “What?” she asked, her voice raspy.  
  
“It’s…” her deputy wasn’t able to finish her sentence. Emma only now focused her eyes on the figure standing in front of her, and noticed the tears in the other’s eyes. She suddenly got up from her chair, she was wide awake now, and asked: “What happened?”  
  
“It’s David…” she started again, tears streaming down her face.  
  
“What, Ruby?” asked the blonde “What happened?”  
  
“David and Mary Margaret were in a accident,” said Ruby, approaching the other behind the desk “they didn’t make it.”  
  
Emma felt her head spinning, it couldn’t be true, she must have been still asleep; it had to be a nightmare.  
  
Tears started rolling down her face, against her control; her deputy, now standing in front of her, hugged her. Emma let her friend hug her for a bit, hugging her back. She was still unable to wrap her head around what she had just been told, when she let go of Ruby and asked: “Why didn’t they call me?” she then looked around and noticed that the phone on her desk was off the hook.  
  
“They tried to call your line first,” said Ruby, knowing how her boss was going to blame herself for not having been able to get the call herself “then they called on the other one.”  
  
“Oh,” said the blonde, placing a hand on the desk, almost trying to hold on to it. “How long ago did they try to call the first time?”  
  
“Forty minutes ago now,” admitted the deputy “I think?”  
  
They had tried calling at the station as soon as they had identified David, but when they kept getting no response, they thought they had a wrong number. Once they had been able to call the other line, thirty minutes had already passed. Ruby had taken an extra ten minutes to calm herself down, and gather the courage to deliver the news to her friend.  
  
“Crap,” exclaimed the other, mad at her own self for moving the phone in her sleep “I should’ve known immediately.”  
  
“I know,” said Ruby, not knowing what to do.  
  
“Wait,” Emma said, removing her hand off the desk, and standing upright in front of her deputy “What about Violet?”  
  
The other sniffled a little and responded: “She is okay. Regina was babysitting her at their house last night.”  
  
“That’s…” the blonde didn’t know how to phrase it, considering she had just lost her best friend “good.” Of course she was happy the baby was okay, it was still hard to be positive in a situation like this.  
  
She then grabbed her coat off her chair, and said: “I have to go.”  
  
Ruby just looked at her without saying a word, then as the blonde was leaving the station she said: “Just… be careful.”  
  
  
  
“Regina,” said the blonde outside the house, once she had rang the bell at least a few times and didn’t get an answer “I know you are in there, I can see the light on.”  
  
After another ring, the brunette opened the door, eyes red: “What, Miss Swan?” her voice lower than usual.  
  
“I wanted to see Violet,” said Emma, holding back tears.  
  
“She is sleeping,” replied the brunette “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”  
  
“I just want to see her,” begged the other “Please, Regina.”  
  
“Okay,” said Regina at last, holding the door open for the other.  
  
Emma marched toward the nursery, and looked at the baby peacefully sleeping in her crib; unaware of what was going on around her. She stared at her for what felt like an eternity, unable to keep her eyes off her; Regina was leaning on the door’s stand fighting really hard to keep her tears in. What in reality had been 5 minutes after she had arrived there, Emma rushed past the other woman and got out of the house.  
As soon as she was outside again, she took a deep breath and walked toward her yellow bug. She then placed both her hands on the car’s roof, kicking the wheel; repeating: “Damn it.” over and over.  
  
  
  
Regina was just outside the front door, she had silently followed the blonde as soon as she had rushed away. She could clearly see how upset the other was, but didn’t know what to do; or even if she wanted to do something.  
The call from the hospital with the bad news had come in earlier that morning, while she was still fast asleep. They had been able to get hold of Regina right away because she had left her cellphone on, in case Mary Margaret would call her. The ringing cellphone had also woken Violet up, who had started crying immediately. The brunette had spent the last hour or so trying to calm the baby down, while trying not to cry too much herself; she had to be strong for both of them.  
Now, she just felt numb, she kept repeating herself that it wasn’t true, that Mary Margaret and David would be here any minute now.  She didn’t have time to take care of someone else. She still waited for Emma to calm down and drive away. As soon as she got inside, closing the door behind her, she marched toward the nursery. She then sat down on the rocking chair near the crib, and started crying silently.  


* * *

  
  
Time was both going so slow and so fast; Regina had never fully understood how that worked. You get a bad news, and all of a sudden you start moving slower, everything around you seems slower; but at the same time, it feels like everyone around you is going at a faster pace, and the only one who can’t catch up is you. She was thinking about this very strange feeling now, five days after the accident. She was sitting on the bed, absently staring in front of her.  
  
“Regina?” said Kathryn for the third time “Can you hear me?”  
  
“Yes,” said the brunette at once “Where is Violet?” looking around her in the room.  
  
“Belle is changing her,” replied her friend “they are in the nursery.”  
  
“Oh,” said Regina, going back to look absently in front of her.  
  
“Hey,” said the other, sitting next to the brunette, placing a hand on her shoulder “it’s okay to cry.”  
  
“I can’t,” replied the other “I have to be strong…  I have to be strong for Violet.”  
  
“Okay,” said the blonde, rubbing her friend’s back “do you need me to do anything before we go?”  
  
It was the day of the funeral, Regina had had her hands full arranging everything for today. Both Kathryn and Belle had helped her in any way she had allowed them to, but she had mostly handled all herself; her friends couldn’t understand how she was still standing. Yes, she was a very resilient person, who had been through a lot in her life; but there has to be a breaking point, a point where too much is too much.  
  
“No,” said the brunette, head turned toward her friend “I don’t think so. Thank you.”  
  
“You’re welcome,” said Kathryn, not knowing what else to do or say.  
  
  
  
  
Emma was in a similar situation at her apartment; she was laying down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes were now too dry and red for the too much crying she had done in the past five days. She knew she had to get up, and get dressed, but she didn’t want to. All she wanted to do was hide under her blankets, and disappear for a while. Or even better, she wanted to wake up and realize that the last week had been just a nightmare. She wasn’t that lucky though, several knocks on her door just brought her back to the sad reality.  
  
“I’m coming,” yelled at the door, reluctantly getting out of bed “you can stop knocking now.” Every little noise bothered her these days.  
  
“You still have to get dressed?” said Ruby, as soon as the blonde opened the door.  
  
“Ugh,” was Emma’s only response to that, marching back to her bed; Ruby following close behind.  
  
“Aren’t you going to get dressed?” she asked again when the sheriff laid down, resuming her former position.  
  
“Soon,” replied the blonde, hiding her face under the cover “soon.”  
  
Ruby sat down on the bed, and said: “I don’t mean to rush you,” speaking in a gentler voice now “it’s just that the funeral is in a hour…”  
  
“I know,” Emma’s voice muffled by the blankets “why do you think I am hiding?”  
  
“I’m sorry,” said Ruby; she was devastated by what had happened to David, but she knew Emma was closer to him than she was “How about I make you some coffee, and then you can start getting dressed?”  
  
“Deal,” said the blonde, hiding further away into her bed, and into her denial.  
  
  
  
  
The ceremony had been very intimate: besides the two godmothers, Kathryn, Belle, and Ruby; only a few other friends of the couple were present.  
David’s family wasn’t that big, and it was all gone even before he had gotten married; Regina was all the family Mary Margaret had left. That meant that now Violet was all Regina had left of her family. That thought kept spinning inside her head, when she was walking down the church’s steps, and had to hold into to railing to avoid passing out. She hadn’t eaten anything that day, and hadn’t been eating that much in the last week; the only times she had remembered she had to, was when one of her friends had brought her something.  
  
Emma, who was walking a few steps behind her, noticed the brunette almost falling, and grabbed her by the arm.  
  
The brunette jumped at the touch, turning around toward the other woman.  
  
“Sorry,” the other said, noticing the uncomfortable expression on the brunette’s face.  
  
“I didn’t see you in there,” Regina said, resuming walking ahead “Did you just get here?”  
  
“I was in the back,” replied the other “I got here before the ceremony started,” now at the end of the stairs.  
  
“I didn’t see you,” admitted the brunette, distracted by her own thoughts.  
  
“Are you okay?” asked the blonde, almost placing a hand on the small of the other’s back, then retreated it at the last moment.  
  
“No,” replied Regina “I’m obviously not okay, Miss Swan,” stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. The same sidewalk they had been standing on not too long ago for the baby’s baptism.  
  
“I didn’t mean…” started Emma “I… “ unable to finish her sentence.  
  
“Regina,” was Belle calling her, approaching the two women “we should get going,” she said pointing at the black limousine parked a few feet away from them. Her friend then reached for Regina’s hand inside her coat pocket, and took it in hers, guiding her toward the car.  
  
  
  
Emma was left there, looking at no point in particular, unable to move. She had been in this state the whole day: everyone around her moved so fast, and she couldn’t feel a single muscle in her body, she had to force herself to feel anything.  
  
“Emma,” came Ruby’s voice from behind her “you ready to go?”  
  
The blonde nodded, absently, and followed her friend towards their car; still feeling like her body wasn’t her own.  


* * *

  
  
Regina looked around disoriented, trying to adjust her eyes to her surroundings. She had just abruptly woken up from a nightmare, the same one she had been having in the last couple of weeks. As soon as her eyes accustomed to the dim light in the room, she remembered where she was: she was sitting at the rocking chair near the baby's crib. She had been sleeping in the nursery ever since that terrible day, too afraid to leave the baby alone, or maybe too afraid to be alone herself.  
Now, she got up and looked at the baby, then checked the time on her cellphone. "It's 5 am, I've got at least an hour before Violet wakes up,” she thought. Between the nightmares and the baby waking up every three hours, she hadn't had a real night sleep.  
A sudden pain in the small of her back made her almost give out a load moan, which she muffled just in time. She absolutely needed a new sleeping arrangement that didn't have her waking up in worst conditions than the night before, but the fear kept her paralyzed. She didn't know how to proceed from there… all she knew was that right now she was going to get herself a cup of chamomile.  
  
Before she could walk out of the room, baby monitor in her hand, the baby started crying.  
  
"No, no, no," thought the brunette, retracing her steps "it's too early." She then proceed to pick the baby up, and sat down at the rocking chair, despite the pain. The rocking chair had been the only thing that had been able to calm down the baby in the last couple of nights.  
  
"Shhh, shhh" said Regina softly, while rubbing Violet's back "I'm here." She wasn't sure if this was a way to calm down the baby, or a way to remind herself that she was indeed still there.  
  
Thirty minutes later, both woman and baby were sound asleep, Violet still in Regina's arms, her head safely placed on her godmother's chest.  
  
  
  
Four hours later, Regina was pushing the baby’s stroller inside her art gallery.  
  
Belle looked up from her computer and said: “You look terrible.”  
  
“Well,” replied the brunette “good morning to you, too.”  
  
“I meant,” the other corrected herself “you look more tired than the other days. Are you feeling okay?”  
  
“Yeah,” replied Regina, yawning “we just woke up at 5 this morning, and a few times before the alarm went off.”  
  
“Still having nightmares?” asked Belle, concerned.  
  
“Yup,” replied the other, rubbing a hand behind her neck, who was now aching too “I just need another cup of coffee, or a dozen.”  
  
“Do you want me to look at the baby for a bit?” offered her friend.  
  
“Yes,” the brunette said, smiling gratefully “I won’t take long,” walking toward the backroom.  
  
“Take all the time you need,” said Belle, who was now standing next the stroller, the baby staring at her.  


* * *

  
  
Emma came out of the station’s bathroom, finding herself face to face with Ruby, who was carrying a tray of coffees.  
  
“Boss,” she said “did you sleep at your office’s desk again?”  
  
“How did you…?” asked the blonde embarrassed.  
  
“You still have a paper clip mark left on your cheek,” pointed out the deputy “plus I saw you when I came in earlier.”  
  
“Oh,” replied Emma, touching her left cheek.  
  
“Here,” added the other, handing her one of the coffees “I got you this, I thought you might need one.”  
  
“Thank you,” replied the blonde, taking the cup off the other hand “I do indeed need it.” and started walking toward her office.  
  
“Hey,” said Ruby “don’t you want this too?” dangling a paper bag in front of her friend, who had just turned around again.  
  
“Bear claw?” said the sheriff, a big grateful smile on her face “You are my favorite person right now,” and grabbed this off her hand, too.  
  
The other woman just winked at her, and walked to her desk, sipping her own coffee.  
  
  
  
Once at her own desk again, Emma focused all her attention on the pastry she was eating. She hadn’t been able to go to sleep till 4 the night before for the too much thinking. In the last three weeks, every time her shift had ended after 9 pm, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to drive back home. When she was able to sleep in her own bed, the situation wasn’t that different. She was more comfortable lying down, but she would still stare at the ceiling for hours on end, unable to fall asleep. The first couple of days after the accident, she had forced herself not to fall asleep, because every time she closed her eyes, she would start having nightmares. Now, she had been so accustomed to falling asleep only when she was so tired her eyelids would become too heavy, that she would sleep a maximum of 4 hours per night.  
  
The worst thing was when, like today, she had to start a new shift in the morning. She was taking all the energy she needed from the coffee in her hand to endure a normal day work, secretly hoping they were going to have a very slow day.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” asked Regina for the fifth time in a row.  
  
“Positive,” replied Kathryn, reassuring her.  
  
“Because if it’s too much to handle for you…” continued the brunette, ignoring her friend’s response.  
  
“It is not,” said the blonde, looking at the baby in her own arms “you don’t have to worry for me.”  
  
“If you say so,” replied the other, still not convinced. She had asked Kathryn to look after the baby for a few hours. She had received a call from Mary Margaret and David’s lawyer, saying they needed to meet to discuss the will. She was about to head at their office right now, but still didn’t feel sure about leaving the baby with someone else, no matter how much she trusted her friend. Although she had accepted both of her friends help whenever she needed to do something that required her to leave the baby alone for a longer period of time, she was always in the same building as them.  
  
“You better get going,” pointed out Kathryn “or you’ll be late.”  
  
“I’m going,” said Regina, before kissing the baby’s cheek one more time “Thank you for everything.”  
  
“My pleasure,” replied the blonde, while the other walked toward the front door.  
  
  
  
Emma was standing outside the office door, trying to see if she was in the right place. ‘Zelena Green & Marian Fitzwalter’ read the engraved plaque on the door. “Is someone here really into fairytales,” she thought to herself “are these their actual names?” She had wondered the same thing the night before when she had found a voicemail on her phone, requesting her presence at Zelena Green’s office this morning.  
  
As soon as she got inside, she noticed the brunette sitting at one of the chairs in what looked like to be the waiting room outside the two offices. Regina was looking down at her lap, nervously rubbing her hands together, when she felt the blonde’s eyes on her.  
  
“Miss Swan,” exclaimed the brunette surprised “what are you doing here?”  
  
“I think for the same reason you are,” replied the other “I have been asked to be here this morning.”  
  
“I see,” said the brunette, having a bad feeling about it “the lawyer should be available in a few minutes, I already asked,” she added pointing her chin at the woman at the desk behind Emma.  
  
“Thank you,” replied the blonde, sitting down far enough from the other to not invade her personal space.  
  
They hadn’t seen each other ever since the funeral, a month before.  
  
  
  
“Miss Mills? Miss Swan?” said the secretary after placing down the receiver “Mrs. Green is waiting for you.”  
Both women thanked her, and proceed to walk toward the office.  
  
  
  
“Sit, sit.,” said the woman behind the desk, when she saw the other two walking inside her office.  
  
“First of all,” she continued, while Emma and Regina sat down “let me give you my most sincere condolences.”  
  
“Thank you,” murmured back to the two women.  
  
 “Now, let’s get down to business,” said the lawyer, being very straightforward “ Do you know why you have been both called here today?”  
  
“Not completely,” replied the brunette; the blonde just shook her head.  
  
“Well,” said Zelena “you are both Violet’s godmothers, is that correct?” Both women nodded in response.  
  
“Good,” continued the lawyer “what you might not be aware of is that you are both her legal guardians.”  
  
“I had my suspects as soon as I saw Miss Swan here today,” admitted Regina.  
  
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Emma, wondering why she hadn’t thought of that herself.  
  
“Normally when two people who are both legal guardians of a minor,” continued the lawyer, still trying to get to the point “but they are not married, they get shared custody or we get to a different agreement. This is a very particular case…”  
  
“How?” both women asked at the same time.  
  
“The parents had left a very unique clause in their will,” she said, picking out a piece of paper on her desk, reading the rest directly from it: “In case both parents of Violet Nolan are deceased, Miss Regina Mills and Miss Emma Swan will get full custody of the child, only if they reside in the same house.”  
  
“What?” said both women, again at the same time. Both shocked by the last information they had just been given.


	5. Chapter 5

“What?” said both women, again at the same time. Both shocked by the last information they had just been given.  
  
“I see you are not comfortable with this,” said the lawyer noticing the distress on both’s faces “Do you want my advice on how to proceed?”  
  
“Yes, please,” responded Emma, while Regina was the one nodding this time.  
  
“You could try to get out of it,” said Zelena, steepling her hands together over her desk “but it will be more complicated than the usual follow up we do before giving full custody. And it would be very expensive, I’d suggest not to fight it.”  
  
Neither woman was very happy with this last sentence, but both of them didn’t want to have to go through something that big at the moment either.  
  
“We should do as the will says,” said Regina, after taking a big breath.  
  
“I agree,” said the blonde, glad the other had answered first.  
  
  
  
Once out of the office, Emma placed her hands awkwardly in her jeans pockets, and said: “So… how do we do this?”  
  
“I don’t know, Miss Swan,” replied the brunette “Will you able to be in the kid’s life?” raising an eyebrow.  
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked the blonde, confused by the insinuation.  
  
“You haven’t asked where Violet was,” pointed out Regina “and you haven’t been by the house since that first day.”  
  
“I assumed she was with someone you trust,” admitted the blonde, hating herself for not asking “And I thought I wasn’t allowed to stop by. That you needed your space.”  
  
“That’s not a good excuse,” said the brunette, admitting to herself that maybe she had been a bit too cold with the woman standing in front of her, but she wouldn’t admit it out loud.  
  
“You know what?” said Emma irritated “I don’t have time for this,” and walked away.  
  
“Miss Swan…” said Regina softly, the blonde was already out of earshot.  
  
  
  
  
Later that same day, Regina’s cellphone started ringing; it was a number she didn’t recognize.  
  
“Hello?” she said, sitting down at the kitchen table.  
  
“Regina?” came the blonde’s voice from the other end “it’s Emma.”  
  
“Yes, Miss Swan?” replied the brunette, now very irritated by how the other had left earlier that day.  
  
“I called to apologize,” admitted the other “I was an idiot.”  
  
After a few moments, Emma looked at her cellphone to make sure the other woman hadn’t hung up, then added: “You still there?”  
  
“Yes,” replied Regina “I was waiting for you to tell me something I didn’t know already,” a bit less irritated.  
  
“Sorry,” added the blonde quickly “I really am.”  
  
“Apology accepted,” was the brunette’s response “I’d like to go back to my dinner now.”  
  
“I actually wanted to talk to you,” Emma didn’t know how to start the conversation, but she had to do it sooner or later.  
  
“About?”  
  
“About how we should proceed with this whole situation we are in. How we should follow the will’s instructions,” said the blonde in one go.  
  
“How about you come at the house tomorrow night?” said Regina, knowing she couldn’t get out of this, not easily at least “We can discuss it better in person.”  
  
“Great,” replied the other, relived she hadn’t gotten a different answer “Are you still at their house?”  
  
“Yes,” said Regina, she had been there ever since the accident, she didn’t want to change too many things for the baby “Be here by 9 o’clock.”  
  
“Will be,” said the blonde, smiling “See you tomorrow.”  
  
Before she could hang up, the brunette added: “Miss Swan?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Where did you get my number?” asked Regina, realizing she had never given it to her herself.  
  
“I asked Ruby to ask Belle,” admitted the other, scratching her neck with her free hand “Hope you don’t mind.”  
  
“There is no space for what I mind or don’t mind right now,” said the brunette, reminding it as much to herself as to the other woman “Bye, Miss Swan.”  
  
Emma looked down at her now silent phone, and thought “What a strange woman!”  


* * *

  
  
Emma had been in the same position for the last ten minutes; right hand keeping her locker open, left hand scratching her head. She was trying to decide what to change into.  
  
“Hey, boss,” said Ruby entering the changing room, looking for the blonde “Need a hand with that?”  
  
“What?” replied the blonde turning around “Did you say something?”  
  
The other laughed and said: “Yes, I was asking if you need help?”  
  
“I’m trying to decide what to wear,” said Emma, pointing at the shirts in front of her. Ever since that disastrous coffee and pizza disaster in one day, the sheriff had been keeping extra clothes at the station.  
  
“Hmmm,” said her deputy, walking toward the other woman “let me see.” She ran a finger through the shirt hanging in front of her.  
  
“So?” asked the blonde, impatient; she still had a good hour before her meeting with her Regina, but she still wanted to make a decision soon, to avoid being late.  
  
“Nervous?” asked her friend, arching an eyebrow.  
  
“A bit,” admitted Emma, she really didn’t want to turn that night into another awkward situation.  
  
“Okay,” said Ruby, picking out one of the shirt out of the locker “Wear this.”  
  
“It’s the same color as the one I’m wearing now,” pointed out the blonde, taking the shirt her friend was handing her.  
  
“I know,” said the other, smiling “but it’s clean. And I think light blue is  a good choice.”  
  
“Well,” said Emma, smiling back grateful for the help “thank you.”  
  
“Anytime,” replied her friend winking at her. She then remembered the reason why she had walked into the locker room in the first place, and added: “by the way, August was looking for you.”  
  
“Ugh,” said the blonde, closing her locker “What does he want now?”  
  
“I’m not sure,” said Ruby “just, don’t be too harsh on him, okay?”  
  
“I can’t make such promise,” replied Emma, before walking out of the locker room.  
  
August had officially been moved there as a deputy a few weeks after David’s accident. Although Emma hadn’t been his biggest fan when he had been there temporarily a few months back, why she didn’t like him now was a whole different deal. Every time she looked at him, she couldn’t avoid remembering the reason why he was there.  
  
  
  
  
An hour later, Emma was standing in front of the door, trying to collect all of her courage to ring the bell. After a minute, she looked at her wrist watch who signed 8:59 pm, and just did it.  
  
“Miss Swan,” said Regina as soon as she had opened the door a few moments later “come in.”  
  
“Hi,” said a ever so embarrassed Emma, following the other woman inside the house, closing the door behind her. Then she immediately asked about Violet, remembering their conversation the day before.  
  
“She is in the nursery right now,” replied the brunette “I was just about to get her ready for the night,” guiding the blonde in said room.  
  
Regina walked toward the crib, and picked the baby up. Emma was astonished at how much the baby had grown up in only a month. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about David.  
  
The brunette, now holding Violet into her arms, noticed the expression on the other woman’s face and suggested: “Do you want to hold her for a bit while I get some things ready?” In reality she had everything ready, as she did every night, but she had recognized the look on the blonde’s face: the one you get when you are trying very hard not to cry in front of someone.  
  
“Actually,” said Emma, scratching her head “I have never held her, or any baby for what matters.”  
  
Regina walked slowly toward the blonde, who was still standing at the room’s entrance “Here,” she said, gently positioning Violet in the other’s arms, Emma instinctively hold the baby.  
  
“Put your hands like this,” added the brunette, moving the other’s arms in the right position, still being very gentle in her movements “here you go.”  
  
“Wow,” said the blonde “that was easier than I thought it would be,” she was also surprised about how smoothly their interaction was going.  
  
“It gets even easier with time,” said the other, suddenly feeling like maybe her and the woman standing in front of her weren’t that different after all.  
  
  
  
A half hour later, Violet was sound asleep, the two women were sitting down at the kitchen table.  
  
“So,” started Emma.  
  
“So,” repeated the brunette “First thing first: if we have to go through with this arrangement, you’ll have to get your own key.”  
  
“I actually have a spare key David had given me,” said the blonde “you know, just in case.” Said key was attached to her keychain, but she surely wasn’t going to barge in on Regina earlier that night.  
  
“Good,” replied the other “we can cross something off the list then.”  
  
“There is a list?” asked Emma, surprised at how prepared the other was.  
  
“It’s a metaphorical list,” replied the brunette “but we can make one, if it’s easier for you.”  
  
“Yeah,” said Emma “that’d be great, thanks.”  
  
The brunette got up, walking toward one of the kitchen’s drawers to get a piece of paper and a pen. Before grabbing said items, she turned around and asked: “Would you like some tea?”  
  
“I…” said the blonde, caught by surprise once again “sure.”  
  
  
  
A cup of tea each later, they had decided how they would take care of Violet; they had opted for Regina taking the baby to work as she had already been doing. Except for when Emma had the day off and/or had the night shift. Emma would take care of her for the rest of the day.   
  
Things were going okay so far, besides a bit of weird tension still lingering in the air between the two, when Regina said: “What about sleeping arrangements?” while she started adding this other point to the list.  
  
“Excuse me?” asked the blonde, almost chocking on her last sip of tea.  
  
“Sleeping arrangements, dear,” repeated the brunette “I think it’s only fair I keep sleeping in the master bedroom, and you use the guest room.” That was a lie, the farther away from the nursery she had slept was on the living room’s couch. She hadn’t been able to sleep in what was Mary Margaret and David’s bedroom just yet.  
  
“Oh,” said Emma, clearing her throat “sounds fair.”  
  
The brunette checked this one last thing off the list, then asked: “Anything else you want to add?” tapping the pen on the notepad.  
  
“Not at the moment,” replied the blonde “when should I move in?”  
  
Her choice of words had the brunette staring blankly at her for longer than necessary, then she finally said: “I think this weekend should work out. Do you need to check your schedule?”  
  
“No,” replied Emma, knowing too well her schedule was wide open, except for work “sounds good to me, too.”  
  
They both smiled awkwardly at each other, both wondering if this unspoken truce was going to last long enough. The situation was difficult enough without them having any petty fights over irrelevant things.  


* * *

  
  
“Could you close up for me tonight?” asked Regina, looking up from her laptop. She was usually the last one to leave at night, unless she had some previous appointment somewhere else.  
  
“Sure,” replied Belle “do you have plans?” who was cataloging some pieces for their new exhibition.  
  
“Not exactly,” said the brunette “Emma is moving in the house tonight.”  
  
“Right, you told me about that,” said her friend, walking to Regina’s desk “is that happening tonight?”  
  
“Yes,” was Regina’s only response, but the other could hear a hint of nervousness in it.  
  
“I’m sure it’ll be okay,” reassured her “even your last meeting wasn’t as horrible as the others.”  
  
“Maybe you are right,” said Regina, doing that nervous thing she always does with her hands.  
  
Emma had texted her the night before, telling her she could start sleeping at the house the night after, asking if it was okay for Regina. Regina had taken a longer time to reply back, re-thinking about the whole situation, then she just typed in “Sure.” before turning her cellphone off for the night. The next morning she had woken up to a new text from the blonde, it was a simple smiley face.  
Now it was 6 pm, and Regina was at the art gallery, almost ready to go back home; Violet was peaceful sleeping in her stroller, right next to Regina’s desk.  
  
  
  
  
A few hours later, she was sitting at the living room’s couch, reading a book. Or at least trying to concentrate on the book in her hands; she had opened it half an hour before and she was still on the same page, unable to get in what she was reading. Violet was in her bouncy chair next the couch.  
  
The doorbell rang at precisely 8:30, the brunette took the baby in her arms, and marched toward he door.  
  
“Hi,” said Emma as soon as she saw the duo “hey… kid.”  
  
Regina kept the door open for the other woman, and turned around to face the blonde staring at her.  
  
“What, Miss Swan?” asked the brunette.  
  
“I didn’t know,” the blonde pointed at her own eyes “I didn’t know you wore glasses.”  
  
“Oh,” said Regina, taking them off with her now free hand “only when I read,” she had forgotten to take them off.  
  
“Where should I put this?” asked the blonde, focusing her attention on the carry on luggage in her hand.  
  
“First door to your left,” she replied the brunette, pointing at the hallway stretching in front of them. She then walked behind the blonde, and turned on her right to get into the living room. She placed her glasses on the coffee table as soon as she got in. She then proceeded to sit at the couch, baby in her lap, waiting for the other woman to get in the room.  
  
  
  
  
“So,” said Emma, sitting down next to the brunette “what happens now?”  
  
“Well,” replied the other, looking at the baby “I should give Violet her bottle soon, then put her to sleep.”  
  
“Shoot,” the blonde exclaimed “I left the food in the car” getting up of the couch; she then looked down at the other woman and asked: “Did you have dinner? I’ve got extra food.”  
  
“I have,” replied the brunette, taking her eyes off the baby and looking up at the blonde.  
  
“I’ll go grab it now,” said Emma, walking toward the door “you’re welcome to join me, if you want.”  
  
  
  
  
Once inside the house again, the blonde found Regina in the kitchen, getting the bottle ready for Violet.  
  
“My offer still stands,” said Emma, sitting down at the kitchen table “grab whatever you like.”  
  
“Thanks, Miss Swan,” replied the brunette, focusing on her task “but I’m not hungry.”  
  
“Okay,” replied the other, before taking a big bite of her sandwich.  
  
After taking a longer time to prepare the bottle, Regina had no more excuse to be standing there, or had any intention to stand up for 15 minutes waiting for it to be done. She sat down at the kitchen table, opposite to the blonde, and right next to Violet, who was sitting in her high chair.  
  
At first, neither of the two women dared to say a word, then Emma noticed the other making furtive glances toward her french fries.  
  
“You can have one,” she pointed out, pushing the tray toward the brunette on the other side of the table “or as many as you want, really.”  
  
“I…” started Regina, she had been so sure she hadn’t made it so obvious she was dying to eat one “okay.” She grabbed one off the tray, in a such a delicate way that made the other woman smile from ear to ear.  
  
  
  
  
After they were done getting the baby ready for the night, or rather Regina had showed Emma how things had to be done; the two women found themselves sitting on the couch once again.  
  
“I’ll should get to sleep,” said the blonde, interrupting the silence  once the other had resumed her reading “I guess.”  
  
“Good night,” was Regina’s only reply, taking her nose out of the book.  
  
“‘Night,” said Emma back, getting out of the room.  
  
  
  
Regina waited to hear the guest room open and close again, then she got up to get her pillow, folded blanket, and pajamas from one of the cabinets in the same room. She had hidden them there once she realized Emma was going to get there, and didn’t feel like explaining why she was sleeping on the couch.  
She placed them on the couch, and started changing into her silk pajamas, hoping the other wouldn’t come back in the room.  
  
  
Emma, now in the guest room, was sitting on the bed, staring at her luggage on the floor. “How did I get to be in such a strange situation?” she asked herself. She then lied down still fully clothed, staring at the ceiling, sure she wasn’t going to fall asleep for a very long time.  


* * *

  
  
“How are things going with Emma at the house?” asked Kathryn after brunch a week later.  
  
“They are going…” Regina was searching for the right word “weirdly okay.”  
  
“I mean,” she continued, knowing her friend wanted more details “we haven’t really been at the house at the same, except for a few hours at night. We are like two polite roommates.”  
  
“What about Violet?” asked the blonde, looking at the baby in her bouncy chair “Is she helping with the baby?”  
  
“She is, in her own way,” said the other “I don’t think she had that much practice with babies.”  
  
“Neither have you,” pointed out her friend, making faces at the baby.  
  
“Yeah,” said Regina “but I kind of had a bit of practice thanks to Mary Margaret, as soon as Violet was born,” with a int of sadness in her voice.  
  
Kathryn caught that, and said quickly: “Right! Want to go take a walk? The weather is kind of getting better.”  
  
They were at Mary Margaret’s house, the house Regina was now sharing with Emma and Violet. Emma had an early shift at the station, and wouldn’t be home for at least another couple of hours.  
  
“Sure,” replied the brunette, glad for the change of subject.  


* * *

  
  
It had passed yet another week, the two women had spent only a handful of hours together since then. Emma had had only morning or afternoon shifts since moving in, so when she got back home at night she’d always find Regina getting Violet ready for the night or almost ready to go to sleep herself.  
Today was different: it was a Saturday morning, and both women in the house didn’t have to work.  
  
Regina got up at 7 o’clock, as usual, to feed the baby; she hadn’t heard the blonde coming back home the night before, so she thought she’d let her sleep in.  
  
A few hours later, Emma approached the kitchen, where she found the brunette sitting at the table enjoying a cup of tea.  
  
“Morning,” she said, still half asleep. She had gotten back home at 1 o’clock, but hadn’t fallen asleep till 4 in the morning.  
  
“Good morning, Miss Swan,” replied the brunette taking her eyes off the newspaper in her hands.  
  
The blonde scratched her head, and sat at the table “Where is the baby?”  
  
“Sleeping in the nursery,” replied the other, adjusting her glasses.  
  
“Right,” said Emma, yawning “as soon as I get myself a cup of coffee, I can take care of her.”  
  
  
  
  
Regina had taken her word for it; it was 11 am and she was enjoying a very well deserved bath. It had been the very first relaxing bath she had taken since she had been taking care of Violet; quick showers had become the norm even when she had the day off, she was too afraid to leave the baby alone for too long. Now, she was enjoying any minute of it: she had prepared herself a warm bath with sea salt, and had lit a few candles around her.  
She had almost relaxed completely, when the sound of the baby crying made her almost slip inside the tub. The crying was too high to be coming from the nursery; in fact, a few seconds later, a voice calling for her got near as the crying got higher.  
  
“Regina,” exclaimed the blonde, now standing outside the door.  
  
“What, Miss Swan?” asked the brunette from the other side.  
  
Emma, not understanding what the other woman had said, she turned the doorknob, and barged in the room; baby in her arms.  
  
“Miss Swan,” exclaimed the brunette, loud enough to be heard over the crying “What are you doing here?”  
  
“I thought,” replied Emma, taking in the sight in front of her “I didn’t think you were in the bath.”  
  
“Would you mind?” said Regina, gesturing for the other to turn around, while sinking a bit lower into the bathtub.  
  
“Oh,” said the blonde, turning red.  
  
“What’s the problem?” asked the brunette, as soon as the other had turned around.  
  
“I can’t seem to be able to make her stop crying,” pointed out the other.  
  
“I can see that,” said Regina, slightly rolling her eyes “did you do something?”  
  
“No,” exclaimed the other offended “She doesn’t want to sleep, or eat. She doesn’t even need to be changed, I checked.”  
  
“I see,” replied the brunette, then closed her eyes to focus only on the crying.  
  
“You still there?” asked Emma, after a few moments, fighting to urge to turn around.  
  
“Yes,” said the other “try sitting on the rocking chair with her for a bit, that should work.” she had begun accustomed to recognizing what each kind of cry meant.  
  
“Thank you,” said Emma, a bit too loudly over the crying, then instinctively turned around; a big grateful smile on her face.  
  
“Miss Swan,” exclaimed Regina once again, trying to cover herself with the now disappearing bubble bath.  
  
“Sorry,” said the other, turning around again and leaving the room.  
  
Regina took a deep breath, and tried to relax once again, but wasn’t able to. As soon, as she got herself out of the bath, and into fresh clothes, she decided to go check on the baby. The crying had chased shortly after the blonde had left the bathroom, but she was still a bit worried.  
  
She entered the nursery, hair still wet from the bath, in awe at the sight in front of her. Emma was sitting at the rocking chair, as she had been instructed, Violet safely placed on her chest; she was finally calm.  
  
The blonde felt the other’s presence in the room, looked up at her, and mouthed a silent “Thank you.”  
  
Regina smiled back at her, without saying a word, but thought  to herself: “This isn’t going as bad as I thought it would.”  


* * *

  
  
That same night, Emma was yet again unable to sleep, it was even more difficult tonight since she had slept in that morning. She had stayed up watching random videos on her laptop till 1 am, trying to get herself tired, but it hadn’t worked. An hour later of staring at the ceiling once again, she decided to get up to get herself a glass of water.  
  
She walked into the hallway, toward the living room, which was the only way to get to the kitchen. As soon as she open the door, she was welcomed by a dim light. Adjusting her eyes to the room, she realized the light was coming from the TV. She walked toward the couch, in search of the remote, when she found Regina lying on it. The brunette was peaceful sleeping on her side, head on a pillow, and a blanket raised to her waist. The TV remote had fallen on the floor, between the couch and the coffee table.  
Emma picked it, careful not to wake Regina up, when she noticed the other woman shivering a bit in her sleep. She gently raised her blanket to her shoulders, causing the brunette to smile slightly, still not waking up.  
The blonde walked toward her original destination, and sat down at the kitchen table, a glass of water in front of her. She wondered how long had the other woman been sleeping on the couch. She was too prepared, with the pillow and the blanket, for it to be a one time thing. She wondered if it had started with the accident, or if she was the reason why she didn’t feel safe to sleep farther away from the baby. She opted to stop thinking about all of this, late night thoughts were usual best if ignored all together.  
  
The night after, once the baby had fallen asleep, they were sharing the couch. They were watching some random movie on tv, when Regina asked: “Did you turn off the tv last night?”  
  
“I did,” replied the blonde, worried the other would yell at her.  
  
“Okay,” said the brunette, still focusing on the tv in front of her.  
  
Emma, re-thinking of all the questions that had come through her mind that previous night, she decided to ask at least one of them.  
  
“How long have you been sleeping on the couch?” she said at last.  
  
“Well,” Regina turned around to look at the woman next to her, deciding whether to say the truth or come up with a lie “since the accident.”  
  
Emma turned around to face the brunette, and noticed something in the other’s eyes; like she was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. She just raised an eyebrow at her, causing the brunette to admit that right before the accident she had been sleeping at the rocking chair in the nursery. Regina didn’t know why she had felt the impulse to be completely honest.  
  
“Oh,” said Emma, taking the information it. “I haven’t slept more than 4 or 5 hours per night since the accident.” she admitted after a few minutes.  
  
Regina was glad she hadn’t been the only one that affected by the whole thing. She wanted to ask the other woman if, like herself, she was having nightmares; but she didn’t think they were close enough to go that far.  
  
  
  
  



	6. Chapter 6

A few nights after, Regina was sitting on the couch, book in her hands; when she heard the front door opening. She looked up from her book, to check the time “It’s 10 pm already” she thought to herself “I didn’t realize it was this late.” She had started to learn the other’s schedule, and so far she had  always been home by 9 pm, tops.  
  
Emma got into the living room, and collapsed on the couch next to the brunette; a few plastic bags in her hand.  
  
“Emma,” exclaimed Regina, noticing the exhaustion on the other’s face “Are you okay?”  
  
The blonde half opened her eyes and shook her head, before falling asleep on the spot. Regina, cautiously brought her hand to the other’s forehead, and noticed she was burning.  
  
“Emma, Emma,” she repeated, trying to shake the other awake “You have a fever. You should take something!”  
  
The blonde forced herself to open her eyes, and said: “Did you just call me Emma?” she wasn’t sure if she was hallucinating, or it had actually happened.  
  
“I did,” replied the brunette, causing the other to smile “that’s not important right now. You shouldn’t have driven in this state.”  
  
“Sorry,” said Emma, not daring to look the other in the eye now. She had fallen asleep in her parked car for a half hour, right after picking up her food on her way home, so she was fully aware that it hadn’t been safe to keep driving.  
  
“No need to apologize now,” said the brunette in what could have sounded like an harsh tone, but in reality it was just concern “You should eat something before taking anything.”  
  
“I got soup,” remembered the blonde, handing the bags to Regina.  
  
The brunette placed them on the coffee table, and got up, marching toward the cabinets. She got the blanket out, and placed it carefully on Emma.  
  
“Sit tight,” she said in a gentle voice this time “I’ll heat the soup up for you,” grabbing the bags once again, and walking toward the kitchen. Emma nodded slightly, then closed her eyes.  
  
  
  
  
“Emma,” the brunette repeated for the forth time that night, there wasn’t any need to be formal when taking care of someone.  
  
“Yes?” said the blonde, opening her eyes.  
  
“Your soup is ready,” Regina said placing the plate on the tray table she had brought in front of the couch before waking the other up “I also got you some aspirin,” she added, placing the medicine and a bottle of water next to the plate.  
  
“Oh,” the other sat upright “thank you.”  
  
“You are welcome,” replied the brunette. She then remembered of the other bag the blonde had handed her earlier “Do you want me to put on that DVD you bought?”  
  
“I didn’t buy it,” said Emma, after taking a spoonful of the soup “I rented it.” She had got accustomed to the idea of renting DVDs instead of buying them, still into the mindset she had been used to into foster homes: never buy new things, you never know when you’ll have to move to a new home; and you don’t want to have to carry too many things around.  
  
“You can still put it on,” added the blonde, realizing she hadn’t given a answer to the other’s question “at one condition though…” the fever was talking at this point.  
  
“What condition?” said Regina, raising her eyebrow in suspicion.  
  
“You’ll have to watch it with me,” she smiled weakly, then tapped her left hand on the free spot next to her, causing the blanket to slide even further down her lap.  
  
“I don’t know,” replied the brunette “I’m not really into Disney movies.”  
  
Emma looked up at the woman standing in front of her, with her best impressions of puppy eyes; which were already watery enough from the fever. “Please,” she begged.  
  
“Alright,” said Regina, before going back to the kitchen to grab the DVD. She didn’t believe she had actually agreed to that.  
  
  
  
  
Once the movie was over - Pocahontas had been the chosen one for the night - and once she was done with cleaning up the dishes, Regina found the blonde asleep again; she was laying down this time.  
The brunette knelt down next to the couch to fix the blanket around the blonde, when the other looked up at her, and asked “Why aren’t you into Disney movies?”  
  
“My mother thought they were just a waste of my precious time,” the brunette replied in all honesty, knowing the other wouldn’t rememberer anything the next day.  
  
“Sorry,” said Emma, before slipping again in her sleep.  
  
“Me too,” murmured the other, she got up again and walked toward the nursery to check on Violet. She had checked on her a few times during the movie, too. Thankfully, she hadn’t woken up again so far since she had fallen asleep earlier that night.  
  
  
  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Regina walked into the living room once again. She was now wearing one of her silk pajamas, and was carrying another blanket. She sat down at the armchair right next to the couch. She both wanted to take an eye on Emma, and she still hadn’t gotten pass the sleeping in the living room thing. Once she had adjusted herself, she looked at the blonde across the room with a new found fondness.  
  
They had switched their sleeping patterns for that night: Emma’s was filled with nightmares, probably caused by the fever; Regina hadn’t been able to close her eyes till 3 in the morning.  
  


* * *

  
  
The week following Emma’s fever, the two women had started spending more time together whenever they were both at home; whether it was taking care of Violet, watching a movie, sharing a meal, or just being in the same room in a comfortable silence. For this exact reason, Regina had decided to drop by the blonde’s office to bring her some lunch.  
  
“Regina,” exclaimed Ruby, as soon as she saw the brunette walking into the station pushing Violet’s stroller.  
  
“Hi,” smiled awkwardly the other “Is Emma here?”  
  
“Not right now,” she replied the deputy, approaching the stroller “she should be here soon, though.” She kneeled down to face the baby and said “Hello, Violet,” smiling widely, then looked up at the brunette still standing, and added: “You can sit there,” pointing at a chair at one of the desks.  
  
“Thank you,” replied Regina, sitting down.  
  
“uh-uh,” was the other’s only answer, too focused on playing with the baby.  
  
  
  
  
Five minutes later, the sheriff came marching in; an handcuffed man was walking beside her. Emma let said man sit down, when she noticed the woman sitting on the other chair. Before she could say anything, the man she had in custody looked at the brunette and said: “What are you in for, sister?”  
  
“Excuse me?” replied Regina outraged, staring back at him.  
  
“Shut up, Leroy,” said Emma, she was bothered too “Sorry, Regina.”  
  
“Ruby can you take care of this?” she then added quickly, looking at her deputy, now standing in front of the stroller.  
  
“Sure thing,” said Ruby, walking toward Leroy to lead him to the cell.  
  
  
  
  
Emma, who had taken Ruby’s former place kneeling in front of the baby, kissed Violet on the cheek, and said: “Hi, kid,” then she looked up at the brunette and asked if everything was okay.  
  
“Yes,” replied Regina “I just thought I’d bring you lunch,” grabbing the paper bag she had placed in the space underneath the stroller.  
  
The blonde quickly got up, her expression went from happy to unreadable in a matter of seconds.  
“I’m not hungry,” she said, starting to move toward the locker room. “Sorry,” she then muttered, before disappearing in the other room.  
  
Regina didn’t know what had just happened, the blonde had ran away faster than she would have had if the room was on fire. She thought bringing her lunch would have been seen as a nice gesture. Maybe Emma didn’t like having her around here too, thought the brunette.  
  
“It’s not you,” said Ruby, almost reading her mind “she used to share most of her meals here with David.”  
  
“Oh,” replied Regina understanding the blonde’s sudden change in mood “I see.”  
  
She then got up and placed the paper bag on the desk next to her, and added: “You can have this, if you want.”  
  
“Thanks.” replied the deputy, feeling sorry for the woman standing a few feet away from her.  
  
  
  
  
  
“Hey,” said Emma entering the living room five hours later, hands behind her back.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Regina blurted out, almost jumping from her spot on the couch.  
  
“No, I’m sorry,” said the blonde, embarrassed “I shouldn’t have left like that today. I don’t know what has gotten into me. I guess it reminded me of David.”  
  
“No need to apologize. Ruby mentioned that might have been the reason,” admitted the brunette “I was going to make you dinner to make up for it, but I didn’t know how you’d take it.”  
  
“Good then,” smiled Emma, taking her hands from behind her back, revealing a take out bag “because I brought this to apologize.”  
  
Regina smiled back at her, glad their misunderstanding from earlier had been resolved so quickly.  
  
“I know you aren’t a big fan of grilled cheese, so I brought you a salad,” continued Emma, who had started to learn the other’s likes and dislikes “and french fries.”  
  
The brunette’s stomach answered before she could, causing Emma to chuckle.  
  
“I see you are hungry,” said the blonde, before leading the way to the kitchen; Regina followed close behind, baby monitor in her hand, as usual.  


* * *

  
  
It was a regular evening at the house now shared by the two women; exactly a month had passed since the blonde had moved in. They had just finished having dinner: Emma was in the nursery trying to calm Violet to sleep for the night, while Regina was checking a few things around the house. They were still trying to find their own rhythm around each other, but one thing was sure: whenever they were both home, they’d always end up in the same room.  
For this same reason, as soon as she had been able to put Violet to sleep, Emma walked into the living room; she was sure she’d find the brunette there, either reading or watching TV.  
  
“Regina?” she called out for her. When she didn’t get an answer back, she decided to check the other rooms.  
  
She walked into the kitchen, not ready for the sight in front of her: the other woman was on the floor, face hidden behind her knees. The brunette looked up when she heard footsteps near her, revealing tears streaming down her face.  
  
“Regina?” Emma repeated, whispering this time. She then sat down next to the brunette and enveloped her in her arms.  
  
Regina put her head on the blonde’s shoulder and started sobbing.  
  
For the next ten minutes, time stood still: the two women remained on the floor, Regina wrapped into Emma’s arms, Emma gently stroking Regina’s back; there was no noise in the room, except for the brunette’s sobbing.  
  
When the sobbing decreased, Emma asked: “What happened?”  
  
Regina took her head from the other’s shoulder, looked up at her with watery eyes, then down at her own hands. Emma followed the other’s gaze, and became suddenly aware of the piece of paper the other was holding on to.  
  
“What is it?” she asked, still not understanding what could have triggered this reaction.  
  
Regina, still unable to speak, just handed it to her with trembling hands.  
  
Emma started reading its content:  
  
  
_Dear Regina,_  
  
  
  
_If you are reading this, it means something terrible has happened to me, and you are taking care of Violet. I know you are going to be a great mom to my child. I know you are going to give her everything you have. I have known this since the moment I chose you to be her godmother. And I have seen it again today: Violet wasn’t even a couple of hours old and you were already looking at her with so much love. I am sure you will give her a wonderful life._  
  
_The reason why I am writing you this is to remind you to not give up so easily on any other kind of love. I know you haven’t had the best examples growing up, and I know I am probably to blame for some of it. But don’t close yourself up: you are a wonderful person with a big heart, who has a lot of love to give. You will find someone who will appreciate and accept all you have to offer; and that will be able to love you back just as much._  
  
_Don’t give up: one day you’ll find your own fairytale love… or maybe you have found it already._  
  
  
  
_Give all my love to Violet._  
  
  
  
_Love_  
_Mary Margaret_  
  
  
  
_Ps: thank you for always being there for me._  
  
  
  
When she was done reading Mary Margaret’s letter, Emma’s eyes were full of tears too.  
  
After a few deep breaths, Regina finally spoke: “It came in the mail today.” It had been written on the day of Violet’s birth, but had been programmed to be sent only weeks after Mary Margaret’s eventual death.  
  
“I’m sorry,” said the blonde. She then brushed off a new tear rolling down the other’s cheek, and asked: “Do you want to sleep in my bed for tonight?”  
  
Regina looked into the other’s big green eyes, now glittering with tears, and nodded.  
  
  
  
Emma was pacing back and forth in what had been her bedroom for the last month. She was waiting for Regina to change into her pajamas, not knowing what to do once the other woman got in the room. After she had seen the brunette fall apart for the first time since the accident, all she wanted to do was keep her safe into her arms. She didn’t know if the other would be comfortable with it. Yes, she had let her hold her earlier, but that didn’t mean she’d let her do it again once the tears were gone. She decided to see what Regina would do and act accordingly.  
  
Five minutes later, the brunette appeared at the door: she had changed from one of her usual pantsuits to purple silk pajamas; which contrasted Emma’s red shorts and white tank top.  
The brunette got into bed, without saying a word, lying on her left side facing the wall.  
The blonde followed her lead facing the other wall, and turned off the light on her nightstand.  
  
Regina was still thinking about Mary Margaret’s words: how she had trusted her with her daughter’s life, and how she had encouraged her to not give up on love. All these thoughts brought tears to her eyes once again, when she remembered about the woman next to her. The woman that had held her in her strong arms earlier, when all she wanted to do was fall apart. She wiped tears off her face, and rolled on her other side to get closer to the blonde. She then proceeded to hug Emma from behind, placing her head against the other’s back, and whispered: “Thank you.”  
  
Emma, glad to feel the other’s warm body against hers, replied: “Anytime,” intertwining her fingers with the other’s.  
  
This was what both of them needed right now: someone to hold on to, someone to count on.  
For the first time since the accident, both women had a nightmare free sleep.  


* * *

  
  
The whole week following that famous night, Regina had been sneaking in Emma’s bed every night. She had kept her distance every time; both because she didn’t want to wake the other up, and because she feared she couldn’t have gotten that close again without a good excuse.  
Emma, having been awake on that first night Regina had sneaked in, in the last five days she had made sure to not fall asleep until she had heard the light footsteps approaching the bed. She had noticed the distance the other had put between them: she would have liked to get closer herself, but didn’t want to cross the other’s boundaries.  
  
  
Now, Regina had found herself suddenly awake  in the middle of the guest room bed. She stretched her hands out on either side of the bed, and murmured the blonde’s name. Adjusting her vision to her surroundings, she noticed it had been 2 hours since she had gotten into bed.  
  
The brunette looked around for her again, then checked on the floor at Emma’s side of the bed, thinking she had threw her out of the bed somehow. Relieved the other wasn’t on the floor, she got up to get herself a glass of water.  
  
On her way back to the bedroom, she decided to go check in on Violet.  
  
As soon as she was close enough to see the room illuminated by the dim nightlight, she spotted the blonde standing in front of the crib; she was looking down at the baby.  
  
“Emma?” Regina whispered, in order not to wake Violet up.  
  
The blonde shook her head as in to remove her thoughts from her own head, and turned around toward the brunette. “Did I wake you?” she asked, whispering back.  
  
“No,”  said Regina, gesturing for the other to get closer.  
  
“Everything okay?” she asked when the blonde was close enough.  
  
“Yeah, I just…” trailed off Emma.  
  
“What?” asked the other, concern and curiosity written all over her face.  
  
“I am nervous about the follow up before we get the full custody,” the blonde finally admitted for the first time out loud. The lawyer had called them that same evening to remind them about the social workers visit in a few days.  
  
“I am nervous too,” replied the brunette “but I am sure everything will be okay.”  
  
“You really think so?” asked the blonde, wondering what made the other woman be so positive.  
  
“I do,” said Regina “we have been doing pretty good so far. The baby is healthy, the house is in perfect conditions.”  
  
“Thanks to you,” said the blonde, scratching her head “Do you think it will be considered cheating the fact that we hired someone to clean the house every so often?”  
  
“We are two working women taking care of a baby,” replied the brunette with certainty “I’m sure they don’t expect us to clean the house ourselves.”  
  
“Good point,” said the blonde, feeling better now that she had let her concerns out “I think we should go back to sleep now!?”  
  
“Yes,” replied the brunette, smiling at the woman standing in front of her.  
  
Emma couldn’t believe her eyes: Regina was giving her the special smile she had only reserved to Violet so far.  
  
“Shall we?” repeated the brunette, once she noticed the other wasn’t moving.  
  
“Yes,” said the blonde, smiling; quickly following the other outside the room.  
  
When they found themselves in the living room, Emma noticed the dilemma all over Regina’s face: she was wondering whether to stay here till the other was asleep again or to follow her directly into the bedroom.  
  
“You can sleep in the guest room,” she offered.  
  
The brunette just nodded at the other woman, and marched toward the hallway.  
  
  
Once in bed, they both took a tiny step toward the other, falling asleep with their arms barely touching; or rather, touching enough to feel the other’s presence besides them, but not too close to invade the other’s personal space.  


* * *

  
  
The follow up to get full custody had come and gone in no time. Both Emma and Regina had taken the whole day off to meet the social workers at the house that same morning. Now the two women were sitting at the kitchen table, feeding Violet, who had recently started eating more solid food.  
  
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” said Emma, bringing another spoonful of baby food to Violet’s mouth.  
  
“It was,” agreed Regina, lovingly looking at the baby.  
  
“I thought it would never end, though,” admitted Emma, turning toward the brunette “they looked at every inch of the house, I thought they were going to stay with us for the night.”  
  
“Well,” Regina laughed slightly “We do have an extra unused bedroom.”  
  
Emma laughed too, then stopped in her track and looked from the baby back at the brunette, with a worried expression.  
  
“What, dear?” asked Regina furrowing her eyebrows.  
  
“Do you think they noticed the master bedroom hasn’t been used?” asked the blonde in one breath.  
  
“I don’t think so,” reassured the brunette “and even if they had, I don’t think it would make a difference in their final decision. All they wanted was an healthy, safe place for the baby to grow in.”  
  
“You are right,” said Emma, still not 100% convinced.  
  
“Plus,” added Regina, noticing the worry in the other’s voice “if sleeping arrangement really mattered, we do share a bedroom now.”  
  
The blonde smiled shyly at the older women sitting next to her, then went back to feed Violet.  
  
  
Regina was right: all that mattered to the social workers was that the baby lived in a safe and healthy environment.  
They had inspected every inch of the house, turned upside down everything that could be turned, which was very little since the house was all baby proofed. They had checked that the baby was healthy and happy. They had asked tons of questions about sleeping schedules, feeding schedules, and everything in between. They had also asked a lot of questions with them to check in the fact they were actually following the will, and living together. That last part hadn’t been a problem for neither of them: they had become a well oiled machine when it came to co-parent, and co-exist in the same house.  
  
  
When Violet was at her last spoonful of baby food, the home-phone rang. Regina quickly grabbed it from the table and checked the called ID.  
  
“Lawyer,” she mouthed to the now staring blonde, while putting it on speaker.  
  
“Hello?” said Regina, her voice shaking slightly.  
  
“Hi,” was Marian’s voice coming through the phone. Since that first meeting with Zelena, they had been in touch with both lawyers to make sure they had everything in order for this final follow up “Is Miss Swan there with you too? I’d like to give you the news to both of you at the same time.”  
  
“I am,” said Emma, dropping the spoon into the now empty baby food jar, exchanging a worried look with Regina.  
  
“I have the final decision about Violet’s custody,” said the lawyer, in her businesslike tone.  
  
Both Emma and Regina stared at the phone for what felt like centuries; the blonde brought her hand past the phone now lying on the table between them, and grabbed the other’s hand in hers.  
  
“Yes?” said Regina, looking from the phone to the blonde’s hand in hers.  
  
“You have now full custody of Violet,” said Marian on the other end of the phone “the follow up was perfect. The social workers were very pleased.”  
  
Both women let out a sigh of relief.  
  
“I’m very happy for you,” continued Marian, in a more cheering voice now.  
  
“Thank you,” said Regina, still staring down at the phone.  
  
“Do we need to come by the office again or…?” asked Emma, just in case.  
  
“No,” replied Marian “everything is settle from now on. If you have any further question, feel free to contact me or my associate again, though.”  
  
  
  
After they had hung up, both women were looking at the baby with a big smile on their faces. Violet, even though she wasn’t aware of what had just happened, smiled back at them, flapping her hands in front of her.  
  
Emma instinctively squeezed Regina’s hand, which was still in hers, causing the other to squeeze back. They both turned around to face the other, both still smiling. They sure hadn’t asked for any of this to happen in the first place, but now they didn’t want to lose Violet for any reason at all: they had really grown to care about the child in equal measure.


	7. Chapter 7

“So,” started Emma, sitting at the kitchen table “how was your week?”  
  
“It was good,” replied Regina, pouring two glasses of wine “this new client is really demanding, but we are managing it.”  
  
They hadn’t been able to really spent time together the last week: Regina had worked late every night, and had always got home to both Emma and Violet already sound asleep. They had arranged for the blonde to pass by the gallery to pick the baby up at the end of her shifts, so she would take care of her for the rest of the day. Fortunately Emma had had only morning shifts, so they could easily split up the time; but that also meant not being able to see each other except for a few minutes at a time.  
  
“Good to know,” said Emma, taking a sip of the wine the other had handed her “is it the same woman I saw at the gallery the other day?”  
  
“Yes,” replied the brunette, yawning “her work is actually really great, so it’s worth it.”  
  
Emma smiled at the woman sitting next to her, when she heard Violet’s cries from the baby monitor. Regina instinctively started to get up, but Emma stopped her.  
  
“You enjoy your wine,” said the blonde getting up, causing the other to sit down again “I’ll go check on her.”  
  
It had been already two months since they had gained full custody of the baby, and everything seemed to have been fallen into place ever since. The two women had started to get more and more along with every passing day, they’d spend even more time together then they should have been. Trying to sync their working hours had become an unspoken routine: they both had been trying to be home around the same time at night, or have the same day off, in order to spend more time together just the three of them. Unless, like the past week, one of the two had something different happening at work.  
  
  
  
“I’m kind of craving something sweet,” said Emma, returning from the nursery five minutes later “Do we still have that tiramisu you bought the other day?”  
  
“If you haven’t finished it,” replied Regina, smirking at the woman approaching the fridge.  
  
“Like you haven’t sneak out the other night to eat it,” said the blonde back.  
  
“How do you know?” Regina asked, widening her eyes. She was sure she had been quiet getting out of bed the other night. But then again, she was sure the other hadn’t heard her sneak in bed the first couple of times.  
  
“When I woke up the next morning you had cocoa powder all over your face,” pointed out Emma, sitting down,  and placing the tray and two forks on the table.  
  
“Well,” said the brunette, tracing the cocoa layer with her index finger “I love it.”  
  
Emma smirked and stared at the other woman, amazed at how far they had come since the first meeting: who would have thought that not even a year later they’d enjoy each other’s company so much?  
She was so caught up in this train of thoughts, that she just made one of her silly jokes, which caused Regina to laugh. It was so genuine that made Emma promise herself to always try to make the other laugh like that whenever she could; even though to this day she still doesn’t remember the exact joke she had told. It didn’t matter though, all that mattered was how gorgeous Regina looked throwing her head back from the too much laughing. Not to mention how her laughter was the most beautiful thing Emma had ever heard.  
“But that’s normal,” she thought to herself “when you are in love with someone, their laugh is the most beautiful of all,” and then it hit her like a train: she was in love with Regina Mills. The realization made her miss her mouth when trying to get a bite of the dessert.  
  
“Look who has cocoa powder all over her face,” pointed out Regina, unaware of whatever was going on in the other’s mind. She grabbed a napkin off the table, the same way she did when Violet would spill food all over her face “ let me clean this.”  
  
Emma almost jumped at the sight of the other woman’s hand approaching her face, and said “I’ll go clean up in the bathroom,” and ran away toward it, leaving Regina speechless, with her hand still midair.  
  
  
  
Once inside the bathroom, the blonde leaned with her back against the door, and let out a long breath. She didn’t know what to do from there on. She was aware that their relationship was undefined at the moment: they were sleeping in the same bed, but hadn’t even kissed yet, or mentioned being anything but co-parents; but now she was… in love? She didn’t know how to deal with the whole situation, it was obviously not going to work; if their first meeting had taught them anything was that they couldn’t try to be anything romantic. Or at least she thought so, and for this very same reason she decided to not mention it at all, hoping it would go away soon enough.

* * *

  
  
“We really had a great time” said Ruby a bit too enthusiastically “you should try it.”  
  
“Maybe one day I will,” replied the sheriff, while sipping her second cup of coffee of the day.  
  
It was 9 on a random Thursday morning, and her deputy was telling her all about her cruise with Belle. They were out patrolling for the morning, they had used it as an excuse to catch up after Ruby had been away for the whole week.  
  
“How are things with you?” asked Ruby, once she was all done telling her how much fun she had had “how is Violet?”  
  
“Violet is good,” replied Emma, smiling at the thought of the baby “she is growing so fast.”  
  
The deputy smiled back, then asked: “So, did you meet anyone cute this past week?”  
  
“No,” answered the blonde, with a puzzled face.  
  
“You didn’t even try to go out?” protested the deputy “you promised you would.”  
  
“I….” started Emma, but was suddenly interrupted by her cellphone buzzing. As soon as she grabbed it and saw the name on the display, she dropped it at her feet. She quickly reached for it between her feet and the pedals, and answered.  
  
  
  
“Regina!” she exclaimed in an unusual high pitched voice “everything okay?”  
  
“Yes, dear. Everything is fine” the brunette reassured her quickly “I was just about to get out the door and noticed we are almost out of diapers. Could you get them on your way home? I’m swamped with work today.”  
  
“I’m on it,” replied Emma, placing her way too hot coffee between her thighs “ouch.”  
  
“Everything okay over there?” asked Regina, raising her eyebrow at the woman on the other side of the phone.  
  
“Yes,” said Emma, turning red, glad the brunette couldn’t see her “I gotta go. See you tonight.”  
  
“Okay, bye,” replied the brunette still not convinced, but hung up anyway.  
  
  
  
Emma dropped the phone in the space between the two sits and gave out a loud sigh, it had been two weeks since she had realized she had feelings for Regina, and she still wasn’t over it.  
  
“Oh my god,” exclaimed the deputy sitting in the passenger sit, causing Emma to jump off of her own, for a moment she had forgotten the other was still there.  
  
“What?” asked the blonde, turning around to face her friend.  
  
“You are in love with her,” she said in a singsong voice “you are in love with your hot co-parent.”  
  
“No, I am not,” tried to protest Emma in vain, knowing too well she had been busted “What if I am, though?”  
  
“Nothing,” replied Ruby in all seriousness this time “You should give it a try! I think you two together could actually work.”  
  
“What about that disastrous first date we had?” pointed out the blonde “How can you say it will work after that?”  
  
“See how far you have come from that moment,” said the deputy “you should definitely give it a shot.”  
  
“I don’t know…” said Emma, more to herself than the other woman “I don’t think she is very interested in me that way.”  
  
“Still worth a shot,” said Ruby, knowing too well her advice would be ignored “you know?”  
  
“I’ll think about it,” replied the blonde, still wondering how on earth someone like Regina could ever be interested in someone like her.

* * *

  
  
“What should I do?” asked Emma for the third time that night “tell me.”  
  
The baby in her arms blabbed at her in response. Another two weeks had passed, and she still didn’t know what to do about her feelings for Regina. She hadn’t had the courage to make the first move, but she hadn’t gotten over it either. Not that she wanted to get over it, but she thought doing so would make everyone’s life easier.  
She had had the morning shift and had passed by the gallery to pick Violet up earlier that afternoon. Once she had gotten home, she had fed the baby and changed her in her night clothes. When she had realized Regina was probably going to be late for the night, she had ordered Chinese food.  
Now, she was sitting on the couch in the living room, with Violet on her lap.  
  
“Do you think Regina likes me?” she asked once again, causing the baby to touch her face in response. It was nice having Violet to talk to, she was sure she wasn’t going to judge her for anything that came out of her mouth; not for a very long time at least. She had started to see David in the baby too, so it was kind of like talking to him again, in a very bittersweet way.  
After a few minutes, she just lied down on the couch, positioning the baby safely on her chest.  
  
“You know what?” she said looking at the baby who was starting to fall asleep “I’m done thinking about it for tonight,” and closed her eyes too.  
  
  
  
  
Regina parked her car in front of the house roughly an hour later. “It’s already 10 pm,” she thought to herself, getting out of the car “I hope Violet is still awake.” she had become accustomed to being there before the baby would fall asleep at night, she always missed it whenever she had to work late.  
  
She still turned the key into the door trying to make less noise as possible in case she was already asleep.  
She walked toward the living room, thinking she’d find Emma in there watching TV, since the light in the room was on.  
  
When she walked in, she was left in awe at the sight in front of her: both woman and baby were sound asleep on the couch; Violet’s head gently places on the blonde’s chest.  
  
Regina walked toward them with her jacket still on, and bend down in order to get Violet to take her into the nursery. Before she could get hold of the baby, she looked at the blonde’s peaceful, sleeping face. She got a little closer to it, and started thinking about how this was the same woman she had all those petty arguments with all those months ago. The same woman she had trouble standing in the same room with for more than five minutes without having an argument, or without having to fight her every instinct to keep her from starting an argument. Now, all she could see was a very caring and hard working woman. Yes, she was still childish and clumsy at times, but that had become part of her charm. She didn’t exactly know when her opinion of the other had actually changed, but she was sure seeing the blonde sharing tender moments like this one with Violet was one of the thing she most liked about her.  
  
“It can't be,” she thought to herself “it just can’t be.”  
  
  
  
“Regina?” asked Emma in her sleepy voice, having woken up feeling the other’s presence way too close to her face “Were you about to kiss me?”  
  
“What? Me?” replied Regina, suddenly startled out of her thoughts “of course not, Miss Swan.”  
  
“Since when do you still call me, Miss Swan?” said the blonde, still adjusting to the light “Am I still sleeping?”  
  
“No,” said Regina quickly “and I thought you had a bug on your face - Emma!” she didn’t know why she had made up this lie, but of one thing she was sure: she couldn’t call her Miss Swan, without sounding suspicious. Since the first time she had started calling her by her first name, she had used ‘Miss Swan’ only a few times when the blonde had forgotten to put the milk back into the fridge, or something small yet annoying like that. This time Emma hadn’t actually done any of those things, there wasn’t even any trace of her dinner in the living room, so she had no excuse at all.  
  
“Ew…” said Emma, fighting the impulse to jump off the couch, so she wouldn’t wake Violet up “Did you get it?”  
  
“I can’t see it anymore,” said Regina, biting her tongue for having said there was a bug.  
  
“That’s good,” asked the blonde frantically looking around her “right?”  
  
“Yes,” replied the brunette “that should be a good sign. Now I should take Violet into the nursery, it’s not safe for you to sleep like this all night.”  
  
“Do you want me to?” proposed Emma, yawning.  
  
“No,” replied the brunette “I’ll take care of it. You stay here, you look comfortable.”  
  
“What about the bugs?” asked the younger one with an horrified expression.  
  
“I didn’t picture you for the scared of bugs type of person.” said Regina, taking the baby in her arms.  
  
“I’m not… scared,” protested Emma, adjusting herself on the couch “I am just not their biggest fan.”  
  
“You’ll be okay,” said Regina, now walking toward the nursery.  
  
“Maybe you are right,” replied the blonde, thinking that she was indeed too comfortable to get up right now, too comfortable to even get up and walk to the bedroom.  
  
  
  
Once she had done placing the baby in her crib, and walked back into the living room to get to the bedroom, Regina was glad she had found the blonde sound asleep again. She wasn’t really ready to share the bed for the night after what she had just realized. It hadn’t sneaked out on her all of a sudden: she had been always aware of her physical attraction toward the blonde, and had noticed how she had started to feel like she could open herself up more and more to her whenever they were having a conversation. She had never really actually dared to do so, because she didn’t want to cross some line she didn’t know if the other wanted to cross. She would always get as far as the other would get in any given situation, that meant sharing very little of themselves: Emma wasn’t a person that easily opens up to you, she had learned. Regina had still started to grow feelings toward the woman, she had been aware of that at every step of the way. Tonight she had just realized how strongly her feelings were: she was actually in love with the other woman.  
Lying down on the bed now, she started thinking about what her next move would be.  
  
“Should I just go for it?” she asked herself, “or should I wait for her to give me a signal?”  
  
She wasn’t going to find it out for the night; before she knew it, she was sound asleep, too tired from the long day she had just had.

* * *

  
  
“How long has it been since the last time the three of us were in the same room?” asked Kathryn.  
  
“hmmm,” started Belle “I can’t even remember.”  
  
“It’s been too long,” replied Regina.  
  
They were all sitting at the table, in what was now Regina’s kitchen. It was a sunny mid-June Saturday morning, and the three friends were finally free to spend some time together, and catch up on what was going on in each other’s lives. They had been in contact whenever they could, and Regina and Belle still worked together, but they all were too busy to actually sit down and have a relaxing chat. Since the weather was so nice out, they had decided to go take a walk in the nearby park. Now, they were waiting for Regina to get Violet ready for the walk.  
  
“How are things at the gallery?” asked Kathryn, looking from one to the other.  
  
“Great actually,” Belle was the first one to answer “after that very demanding client, we have had a bigger influx of people.”  
  
Regina nodded in agreement, while putting the last few things she needed for the day in the diaper bag.  
  
  
  
  
Kathryn was about to ask another question, she was usually the one to ask more questions, when the three of them were interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching.  
  
It was Emma, of course, hair going in every direction, hand slightly rubbing her still half-closed eyes. When she got almost near the table, she jumped at the sight of all those people in the kitchen.  
  
“Oh,” she said, not knowing what to do. She would have liked to cover herself by pulling down her tank top over the panties she was wearing, but that would have only revealed her bare breast, which wasn’t really that better. She just opted for a shy hi, wishing she had never gotten in the kitchen in the first place.  
  
Both Belle and Kathryn greeted her, without making her feel more uncomfortable that she already was.  
  
Regina looked at the blonde up and down, she still wasn’t used to her sleep attire even after all these months of sharing a house, and a bed. She then cleared her voice and said: “Dear, do you want me to wrap something up for you before we go out?”  
  
“I…” started Emma, approaching the brunette standing near the kitchen counter “I’m good, thanks. Did I know you were going out this morning? I didn’t hear you getting out of bed.”  
  
“I left you a note on the nightstand,” replied Regina, slightly touching the other's arm “You can enjoy your day off. We are taking Violet to the park.”  
  
Emma almost jumped at the touch and blushed quite visibly.  
  
Regina’s friends, who were following their interaction really closely, exchanged a knowing look.  
  
“Regina,” said Belle, getting up, Kathryn following her lead, “we are going to wait for you outside.”  
  
The brunette nodded at her friends, and turned around to close the diaper bag on the counter.  
  
Once the other two women were out of the room, Emma scratched her head, and said: “Well, I don’t want to keep you. Have fun at the park.”  
  
She then approached Violet who was already sitting in her stroller, and kissed her goodbye, “see you later, princess.”  
  
“Bye,” replied Regina, realizing too late how that could have sounded. She put the diaper bag on her shoulder, and started pushing the stroller out of the room, hoping the still half sleep Emma hadn’t noticed.  
  
The blonde had indeed noticed: she sat down at the kitchen with a confused expression on her face, looking at the brunette walking out of the room; if she didn’t know better, she would have thought Regina was rushing out of there as fast as she could.  
  
  
  
After she had detached the car-seat part from the rest of the stroller, and secured Violet safely into the passenger seat, she got behind the wheel. As soon as she did so, she felt both her friends’ eyes on her.  
  
“What?” she asked impatient, looking form Kathryn sitting next to her, to Belle in the passenger seat.  
  
“You are not telling us something,” pointed out Kathryn, Belle nodded.  
  
“What am I keeping from you?” asked Regina, genuinely confused.  
  
“That you have feelings for the sheriff,” said Belle, in an almost mocking voice.  
  
“I do not,” started Regina, sometimes she hated how well her friends knew her “What makes you say that?”  
  
“Everything,” started Kathryn “the way you look at her, the way you touched her earlier.”  
  
“They way you haven’t complained about her sleeping only with a tank top and panties.” continued Belle, smirking “or the fact that you haven’t mentioned to either of us that you were sharing a bed.”  
  
“Okay, okay,” said Regina defeated “you can stop listing reasons. I do have feelings for Emma, so what?”  
  
“Have you tried making a move?” asked Kathryn, knowing too well what the answer would be “she is clearly into you, too.”  
  
“How can you say that?” asked Regina, genuinely curious.  
  
“Haven’t you noticed how she almost jumped at your touch?” pointed out Belle “or how she blushed right after?”  
  
“Well,” Regina had definitely noticed that “that’s her usual self. She is always so awkward.”  
  
“I’m telling you,” said Kathryn, looking at the brunette right in the eye “she has got a thing for you, too. You should make a move.”  
  
“I will…” started the brunette “think about it. Can we get going now? I don’t want to spend the whole day in the car in front of the house.”  
  
Her friends just agreed to that, knowing too well that the conversation wasn’t going to go any further; at least not today.

* * *

  
  
“Regina!” exclaimed Emma as soon as she heard the front door opening and closing. It was a random weeknight at the beginning of July.  
  
“Yes?” asked the brunette entering the living room, where the other’s voice was coming from.  
  
“This package arrived for you earlier,” the blonde said, pointing at said package on the coffee table.  
  
“Did you open it?” asked Regina, squinting her eyes at the other woman, while sitting down on the couch next to her.  
  
“I did not,” replied Emma, only half offended. She was really curious to know what the other had received, she usually got all her packages delivered at the gallery.  
  
“Good,” said the brunette, smiling “you can open it now.”  
  
Emma widened her eyes, and said: “I can? is that for me?”  
  
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” smirked the brunette.  
  
“O-okay,” said the blonde, unable to contain her curiosity. She picked the box up, and started to open it. As soon as she opened it, she stared at its content, her mouth hanging open.  
  
Regina, not knowing how to interpret her reaction, she leaned forward to look if it was the right package.  
  
“So,” she started, once she realized it wasn’t the wrong one “Do you like it?”  
  
“Do I like it?” asked Emma, looking away from the package to the woman sitting next to her “I love it!”  
  
The blonde picked up the content of the package, and started turning it around in her hands, still not believing her eyes.  
  
It was a box-set of Disney movies Regina had ordered for her. They had started their own little tradition of watching those movies whenever they could, ever since Emma had had a fever and had requested for Regina to watch one with her. The brunette had decided to get this as a gift for the other, because she had noticed that, although she loved those movies, she didn’t own any of them. She always rented them, sometimes she even rented the same movie more than once.  
  
“You do?” asked Regina, smiling at how happy the blonde looked.  
  
“I do,” said Emma, genuinely happy about the gift “Thank you so much.”  
  
“You are welcome, dear,” replied the brunette.  
  
“Do you want to watch one tonight?” said the other, still looking at the box-set in her hands “You pick the movie.”  
  
“Sure,” said Regina “I’ll get Violet ready for the night, you can order dinner.”  
  
“I’m on it,” said Emma, getting up and walking toward the kitchen. Regina followed her lead, walking toward the nursery instead.  
  
  
  
  
An hour later, they were both sitting on the couch, enjoying the movie Regina had chosen for the night: The Little Mermaid. They had started by sitting at opposite sides of the couch, but now they were shoulder to shoulder. They both liked the other’s touch against them, but didn’t dare to move any closer. Not until Regina had heard the next song in the movie.  
  
It had been a couple of weeks since she had admitted her feelings for the blonde, first to herself then to her friends. She hadn’t made any move yet so far, she had decided to wait for the other to give her a clear signal, not knowing that Emma was waiting for her to do the same. They had continued to be as friendly as they had been once they had started to really get along; maybe that’s what had stopped the both of them to make a move. They didn’t want to ruin whatever was going on between them, in case the other didn’t feel the same.  
  
Now, though, Regina was listening closely to the lyrics coming from the TV, and decided that the talking crab named Sebastian was right: she should kiss the girl.  
  
Regina, counted to three, then turned around and looked at the blonde mouthing  the song along with the DVD. She then gently placed her thumb and index finger under the other’s chin, and turned her face around so they could face each other. Their faces were a few inches apart now.  
  
Emma had her eyes wide open, not believing that this moment she had hoped for was finally here.  She gave a light nod at the brunette intently looking her in the eye, finally giving her that much awaited signal.  
  
They both met the other halfway, completely closing the gap between them. As soon as their lips touched, it felt like magic.  
  
Regina put her hands through the blonde’s locks, and started laying back, bringing the other  down with her; lips still locked together.  
  
After a few minutes, Emma, who was now on top of the other, broke the kiss and looked down at her.  
  
“Took you long enough,” she said, taking in the sight of the gorgeous woman.  
  
“If it weren’t for me…” let it trail off Regina, before taking the other’s lower lip between her teeth and biting lightly.  
   
“Take me to the bedroom, Emma.” she said at last, breaking off the second kiss she had initiated.  
  
Emma didn’t wait for the brunette to say it twice, she quickly got up and scooped the other off the couch, walking her toward what had became their bedroom.  
  
  
Neither of them was surprised at how quickly it had escalated, from their first kiss to their first time together. They both knew that, once they were sure the other felt the same way, they wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other.  
What they never expect was that, it had been a year since their first horrible meeting, and their relationship had changed so much since. That famous day, neither of them would have guessed that they would have found themselves in this exact position just twelve months later.


	8. Chapter 8

Emma still couldn’t believe that any of this had actually happened. It had been a few hours since Regina had kissed her for the first time, and she still thought she was in some kind of dream. She closed her eyes shut, and opened them again, but her surroundings hadn’t changed. She was leaning with her head on the brunette’s shoulder, their naked bodies still intertwined under the blanket.  
  
“Regina?” said the blonde, lifting her head up a bit to stare at the brunette.  
  
“Yes?” replied the brunette, opening her eyes, and looking down at the other woman.  
  
“Did you really hate me the first time we met?” she asked in one breath. She had wanted to ask that exact question for so long, but had never found the right moment to do so.  
  
“I…” Regina cleared her voice before answering “I didn’t hate you.”  
  
“Are you sure?” said Emma, still not convinced “I mean…”  
  
“What?” asked Regina, taking her almost asleep arm from under the blonde’s head, stretching it upward.  
  
“The way you talked to me that night,” continued the younger one, looking away from the other’s gaze “It really sounded like you hated me.”  
  
“It was just a weird situation, and I was really nervous,” admitted the brunette “plus, you weren’t an angel either that night.”  
  
“You’re right,” said Emma, looking up again “I’m sorry I said you eat like a 80 year old.”  
  
“It’s okay,” replied the brunette, starting to play with the other’s blonde locks “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about the shirt.”  
  
“It’s all water under the bridge or whatever,” said the blonde, smiling widely “right?”  
  
Regina smiled back at her nodding, then closed her eyes again.  
  
  
A few minutes later, Emma called the brunette’s name again.  
  
“What, dear?” replied Regina, keeping her eyes closed.  
  
“Did this really happen?” the blonde asked in low voice.  
  
“What do you mean?” the brunette looked down at the other woman once again, very confused by the question.  
  
“This,” said Emma gesturing at their bodies wrapped under the blanket “us. It doesn’t feel… real.”  
  
“Oh,” said Regina, realizing what the blonde meant “It isn’t a dream, if that’s what you are wondering.”  
  
“I’m glad it isn’t,” said the younger woman, tracing circles on the older one’s belly; only a thin layer separating her finger from it.  
  
“But…” Regina let her voice trail off.  
  
“What?” exclaimed the other, worried that the brunette was going to say it had been a mistake.  
  
“But if you still have your doubts,” replied the brunette “we can have a second round, so you can be sure this isn’t a dream.”  
  
“It would actually be the fourth round,” said Emma, chuckling in relief “but I am in.”  
  
She grabbed the blanket and threw it off their bodies in one easy swift. She then positioned herself on top of Regina, placing her hands on either side of the brunette’s head, ready to go in for a kiss.  
  
Regina met the other’s lips halfway, bringing her hand between the blonde’s thighs, ready to prove her this was not a dream at all.  


* * *

  
  
Roughly a week later, Emma was pacing up and down the living room, waiting for her phone to ring. Violet was in her bouncy chair, following her every move.  
  
When the phone finally started ringing, the blonde quickly reached for it on the coffee table, and answered it.  
  
“Ruby?” she said “How is everything going?”  
  
“Everything is going according to plans so far,” reassured her friend on the other line.  
  
“And she hasn’t suspected anything?” asked the blonde worried. “At all?”  
  
“She hasn’t,” replied the deputy “Belle said Regina is still at the gallery, and hasn’t questioned her.”  
  
“Good. Keep me posted,” said Emma, relieved to hear so “and… thank you, Ruby!”  
  
“You are welcome,” replied the other, before hanging up.  
  
  
Emma replaced her phone on the coffee table, and knelt down in front of Violet.  
  
“We are going to surprise Regina, aren’t we?” the blonde said talking to the baby; who in response smiled at her, touching the feather pendant dangling from her neck.  
  
  
  
Now that her and Regina were an item, Emma had thought that their relationship had been so peculiar since their very first meeting, that they had gotten together without even going out on a real date once. She was aware of the fact that they had basically spent almost four months living together now, and they had been spending almost all of their free time just the three of them. They had had a lot of movie nights, and shared dinners; they had also gone out with either Kathryn and her fiancé, or Belle and Ruby, but this was before neither of them knew of the other woman’s feelings. Emma, for that reason, had decided she wanted to surprise Regina with a night out she was sure she would have loved, something they hadn’t done together so far.  
  
  
  
It was 9 o’clock and Regina was driving in her car with Belle in the passenger seat; her friend had asked her to give her a ride to this unknown address.  
  
“How long is your car going to be at the shop?” asked the brunette, once at a red light.  
  
“Just for the night,” replied Belle, looking out the window, trying to avoid her friend’s gaze.  
  
“Oh,” said Regina, speeding up at the green light “what was wrong with it?”  
  
“I… have no idea,” replied the other, reaching for her phone to send a quick text.  
  
“Okay,” said the brunette, still not convinced. Belle would have usually give her a very detailed explanation about what needed to be repaired; she never missed an opportunity to go all technical on anything. Regina decided not to push it though, thinking her friend was distracted by something that she was sure she’d  want talk about at her own pace.  
  
“Pull over here,” said Belle suddenly, taking Regina out of her thoughts.  
  
“There is nothing around here,” replied the brunette, once she had pulled over, raising an eyebrow at her friend “Are you sure you have the right address?”  
  
“I’m sure,” the other replied, finally facing her “this is definitely your stop.”  
  
“What do you mean my stop?” asked Regina, confused.  
  
“See,” said Belle, turning around toward the sidewalk, pointing at the silhouette walking toward the car, then rolling down her window.  
  
“Hi,” came the voice of the person standing next to the car.  
  
“Emma?” asked Regina, while the blonde knelt down to face the two women inside.  
  
“You have reached your destination,” said Emma, imitating the GPS voice.  
  
The brunette looked from the blonde to her friend sitting next to her, still not understanding what was happening. Belle gave her a slight nod of encouragement.  
  
“Should I get out?” asked Regina.  
  
“If you want the night to start,” said Emma, while moving away from the door in order to let Belle out of the car.  
  
Regina followed her lead, getting out on the other side, and walked toward the sidewalk.  
  
“I’ll take care of your car,” said Belle, while walking in the opposite direction “enjoy your evening.”  
  
“Thank you, Belle,” said Emma, reaching for Regina’s hand “thank Ruby, too,”  
  
Regina instinctively squeezed the blonde’s hand into hers, then looked once again from the blonde standing next to her to her friend driving away in her car.  
  
“Where are we?” she asked at last “What is going on? Where is Violet?”  
  
“Okay,” Emma turned around to completely face the other, and grabbed both of her hands in hers “I can answer one question for now: Violet is at home with Ruby, Belle is driving back there, too.”  
  
“Okay,” said Regina, reassured about knowing where the baby was “What do I have to do to get more answers?”  
  
“Trust me,” replied the blonde, letting go of one of the brunette’s hands, positioning herself once again at her side.  
  
“I do trust you,” said the older woman, rolling her eyes slightly.  
  
“Then would you follow me, please?” said Emma, starting to march forward, as soon as the brunette nodded at her.  
  
  
  
After walking for a few blocks in complete silence, Emma stopped in front of a building that was way too familiar to Regina, and exclaimed: “Here we go.”  
  
“They are closed at this hour,” replied the brunette, furrowing her eyebrows “trust me, I know.”  
  
“You trust me,” said the blonde, smiling at her instead “don’t you see the light is on?”  
  
“I do,” replied Regina, still not convinced “they are probably cleaning or something.”  
  
As she was saying that, a man opened the door in front of them, causing Regina’s mouth to hang open for a few seconds.  
  
“How…?” she asked when she regained her voice “How were you able to do this?”  
  
“I asked Belle to pull a few strings for me,” replied the blonde; following the man inside the building, still hand in hand with the brunette.  
  
  
The way too familiar building was Regina’s favorite museum in town. She has mentioned it a few times to Emma, but she wasn’t sure the blonde was actually paying attention to what she was talking about.  
  
“You did?” she asked at last.  
  
“Yes,” replied Emma unable to stop smiling.  
  
The guard who had showed them their way in, interrupted them to say he’d give them their privacy, and walked away.  
  
“I hope you don’t mind,” unable to contain her joy, the blonde started babbling in record speed “I know this is your favorite place in town, and I thought you’d like to visit it once you were alone. Or rather, just the two of us. Plus, Belle asked access to some of the restricted areas.”  
  
Regina looked at her in awe, wondering why she hadn’t thought about doing something like that herself. She knew she could’ve pulled some strings, if only she wanted to. Her art gallery was well known now, but she never wanted to ask anyone any favor, if it was avoidable.  
  
Not getting any answers from the brunette, and not being able to read her expression, Emma quickly added: “If you don’t like it, we can go…”  
  
Regina shook her head to get out of her thoughts, moved forward the blonde, and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I love it,” she said at last “thank you!”  


* * *

  
  
It was a hot mid-July morning; Regina, Emma, and Violet were in the backyard. Regina was holding the baby in her arms, while Emma was filling the baby pool with water. They had bought it just the night before, and couldn’t wait to see how Violet would react to it. The baby could sense the enthusiasm in the air, and showed it herself too; even putting the swimming suit on had seemed like an exciting event.  
  
The blonde turned off the hose, and tested that the water was a good temperature for the baby.  
  
“She can go in,” she said at last.  
  
“Wait,” said the brunette, handing the baby to her “I’ll get my phone, I want to take a video of this.’  
  
“Why didn’t I think about it?” replied Emma, frowning a bit, then quickly smiling again at the baby now in her arms.  
  
“Okay,” said Regina once she was back outside, phone in her hand “I’m ready.”  
  
Emma approached the tiny pool in the middle of the backyard, and gently placed Violet in it.  
  
Violet immediately started splashing her hands in the water. She hadn’t had any problems getting used to baths either; water really seemed to be her element.  
  
As soon as Regina had put her phone away, after she had recorded the first five minutes of this new experience for Violet, Emma sat down right next to the pool.  
  
“Come sit with us,” said the blonde, looking up at the brunette.  
  
“You want me to sit there in the grass?” protested Regina “I’ll ruin my pants.”  
  
“Yes, in the grass,” Emma said, patting the free space next to her “and those are just old sweatpants, you’ll wash them later.”  
  
“hmmm…” started the brunette, knowing too well she wasn’t going to win this one “okay.”  
  
She gently sat down, positioning herself on Emma’s right side; they were both facing the pool now. Violet, too excited by Regina’s presence, started splashing her hands even harder, causing a few drops of water to land on the brunette’s sweatpants.  
  
Emma raised an eyebrow, and widened her eyes at the brunette, a wicked smile on her face.  
  
“Don’t you even think about it,” said Regina, knowing too well what was going on in the blonde’s mind.  
  
“Think about what? Doing this?” asked Emma, before starting splashing water at the other; closely followed by Violet, who was trying to imitate her.  
  
Not too long ago, Regina would have just gotten up and walked away. Now the situation was different: the combined laughs of both Emma and Violet, caused her to laugh too. She then brought her hand into the pool and started playing at their game too.  
  
The trio laughing together looked like the picture of the perfect family.  


* * *

  
  
Regina opened the front door with her shoulder, she had a hand secured on the stroller, and the other was holding a few bags.  
  
Walking inside the kitchen, she immediately noticed the piece of paper left on the table; she put the bags next to it, and grabbed her phone from her purse.  
  
“Don’t forget the balloons,” she typed a quick text to Emma.  
  
“I won’t,” came the response a few moments later.  
  
“And the plates,” “And the decorations,” the brunette sent two texts in a row.  
  
While she was starting to type the next item on the list, she received a new text from the blonde reading: “I won’t forget. That’s why you gave me the list.”  
  
“You forgot it at home. On the kitchen’s table.”  
  
“How do you know?”  
  
Regina snapped a quick picture and send it to the other, with the caption: “Because I am home.”  
  
“Shit,”  
  
“Yes, shit. Miss Swan, one day you’ll even forget your head.”  
  
“I won’t forget any of those things. Wanna bet? ;)”  
  
“Okay, Emma. I’ll play your game.”  
  
“What are we betting?”  
  
“If you don’t have all the items on your list by tonight, you’ll have to cook for the next week. No takeout.”  
  
“What do I get if I win?”  
  
“I’ll wear your jeans for a week.”  
  
“Deal!!!!!! :D”  
  
Regina read the last text from the blonde, and laughed to herself: she was sure she had given Emma the right incentive, but was still unsure about her taking her task to term.  
  
The brunette had spent part of her lunch buying things from her own list, and had stopped by the house just to drop off some of those things that needed to be stored in a freezer.  
They needed all those items for Violet’s birthday that same weekend. They had decided to do a small gathering with their closest friends, but had been planning it like it was going to be a bigger party. Neither of them wanted the baby to feel like they weren’t celebrating enough, even though they were both aware that at one year old, Violet was probably not going to remember any of this.  
  
  
  
“Come on,” came Emma’s voice form the other side of the door “let me take a look.”  
  
“Just a moment,” replied Regina, looking herself in the mirror. She then gave out a low sigh, and marched toward the door.  
  
“Wow,” was the blonde’s only response to the brunette standing in front of her.  
  
“What?” replied the other, looking down at herself “you don’t like it? It was your idea…”  
  
“Are you kidding me?” said Emma, looking up and down at Regina’s legs “You look great.”  
  
“You really think so?” asked Regina.  
  
“Yes,” exclaimed the blonde, getting a bit closer “I have seen you in jeans before, but not in ones this tight. They really work on you.”  
  
“Do I really have to wear them for a week?” asked the brunette, remembering their deal.  
  
“Yes,” said Emma firmly, before wrapping her arms around Regina’s waist, and kissing her softly on the lips “I won the bet after all.”  
  
  
  
Earlier that night, Emma had managed to come home with every single item on her list, plus some extra stuff she was sure they were going to need, but neither of them had put on their lists. Regina had counted everything in the several bags the blonde had brought home, checking and re-checking everything a couple of times. When she had realized that nothing was missing, she had tried to talk her way out of the bet. She hadn’t had any luck, Emma was firm on wanting to see Regina in a pair of her jeans.  
  
  
  
Now, seeing the brunette furrowed expression, Emma let her hand trail down Regina’s body, and squeezed her butt.  
  
“This feels even better in my jeans,” she said smirking.  
  
“Idiot,” said Regina, smirking back at her, before kissing Emma a bit more passionately.  


* * *

  
  
“Do you think she is happy?” asked Regina, in a low whisper.  
  
“Yes,” replied Emma without thinking about it twice “just look at her.”  
  
“I hope you are right,” said the brunette, stealing a short glance at the woman standing next to her, before turning to lovingly look at the baby.  
  
  
They were standing shoulder to shoulder in the nursery, a few feet away from the sleeping baby. Violet was hugging her new unicorn stuffed animal, which was one of the dozens of presents the two women had gotten her for her birthday. The moment she had seen said stuffed animal, Violet had clung onto it like it was the best thing she had seen in her short life. That had made Regina particularly happy: she had always had a thing for unicorns as a child. The sight of Violet with it made her eyes sparkle, much to Emma’s amusement.  
  
  
“I didn’t think you were the unicorn kind of girl,” said the blonde now, in a playful tone.  
  
“Why is that?” asked Regina, turning her head toward the other.  
  
Emma slightly poked the other’s side, and said: “I’m just teasing you. But now I can’t stop imagining tiny you surrounded by unicorns.”  
  
“Psst…” said the brunette, remembering her childhood being far from that image Emma had in her head “Me neither.”  
  
“What do you mean?” asked the blonde, still keeping her voice low in order to not wake the baby.  
  
“Mother didn’t allow me to have frivolous things like stuffed animals,” responded Regina, before giving out a low sigh.  
  
“Awww,” said Emma, wrapping an arm around the brunette’s shoulders “Do you want me to get one for you, too?”  
  
“No, it’s okay,” said the brunette, leaning her head on Emma’s shoulder “What I want now is to not let Violet miss out on any part of her childhood.”  
  
“Me too,” said the other, squeezing her hand on the brunette’s shoulder.  
  
“Do you really think she is happy?” asked Regina once again.  
  
“I do,” reassured Emma. She took her eyes off of the peaceful sleeping baby, and planted a kiss on Regina’s head “I really do think so.”  
  
  
  
That same afternoon they had held Violet’s first birthday party. It had been a small gathering since they only invited people had been their closest friends, but they had gotten out of their way to make sure it didn’t miss a thing. The only thing they had passed on having this year was some kind of entertainment, since they had agreed on going with that on a later year, when they would have had more kids Violet’s age at the party. Other than that, the backyard had been fully decorated for the occasion: a big banner reading “Happy Birthday Violet” hanging between two trees, colorful balloons and animal shaped decorations everywhere. The food was mostly for the adults, since Violet was too small to eat it, but they still had opted for the most colorful food they could have thought of; including a rainbow cake.  
  
Violet had really looked happy surrounded by all those colors, and all of the attention from all the people in her life. She was such a happy kid all the time, always smiling at everyone around her. The unwrapping of the presents had been a major source of joy for her that day.  
  
All of Emma and Regina’s love and nurture could be seen through Violet’s big smile. Yes, part of it dependent on the kid’s own personality, but it was majorly influenced by the life the two women were giving her. At the end of the day, both women wanted nothing but the kid’s safety and happiness; and it really shined through Violet’s constant happiness.  
  
  
  
“Let’s go to sleep too,” said Regina, wrapping her own arm around the blonde’s waist “I’m exhausted.”  
  



	9. Chapter 9

“Are we really sure about this?” asked Regina for the third time that evening.  
  
“Yes,” replied Emma, not sounding too convinced to herself either, while trying to hide her own worries from the brunette.  
  
Regina raised an eyebrow at her not buying the blonde’s words.  
  
“What?” asked the younger woman.  
  
“I am not really sure about this just yet,”  said the brunette, before giving out a low sigh.  
  
“Me neither,” admitted Emma “but it was bound to happen sooner or later.”  
  
“Can it be later?” protested the brunette; her bottom lip sticking out just slightly to show her disappointment.  
  
“You are overworking yourself lately,” pointed out the blonde “I would take over some of the slack, but I don’t think the station is a good place for Violet.”  
  
“I don’t mind having her at the gallery,” said Regina, still not convinced about their mutual decision.  
  
“I know you don’t mind,” replied Emma, placing a gentle hand on the other’s knee.  
  
  
They were sitting on the living room’s couch, facing each other. They were discussing their latest decision to send Violet to a daycare. They had come up with that solution around the baby’s first birthday almost a month before, and had spent a lot of time since looking for the right one. They had found one that best matched their needs, and had gone through all the required meetings before finalizing Violet’s admission. Now, it was the evening before her first day there, and Regina had started voicing her last few worries.  
  
  
“Hey,” continued the blonde, noticing the worry on the brunette’s face “it’s only going to be for half a day for now. She’ll be okay,”  
  
“I know she will,” said Regina, looking down at her lap “I don’t know if I will.”  
  
“You will be okay too,” reassured the other, before taking the brunette’s hand into hers.  
  
“You are probably right,” replied the brunette, looking up and into the big green eyes staring at her “I am just so nervous about her not being with neither of us for all those hours.”  
  
“I am too,” admitted Emma. She was really trying to be the strong one in this situation, but didn’t want Regina to think she was the only one who was worried either.  
  
  
Regina smiled lightly before turning her whole body around in sitting position.   
  
Emma instinctively followed her lead and raised her right arm up to let the brunette nestle up against her.  
  
“Everything will be fine,” said the blonde once the other had positioned herself, wrapping her arm around the brunette’s shoulders.  
  
  
  
  
  
“Did we get everything?” asked Emma, re-positioning the diaper bag on her shoulder.  
  
“I think we did,” replied Regina, baby in her arms.  
  
“Let me check,” says the blonde, stopping a few feet away from the daycare’s entrance “just in case.”  
  
After a few minutes of making sure everything Violet would need for the morning was in the bag, Emma turned around toward the brunette standing next to her, and nodded. The two women then looked up at the now familiar building in front of them, when they heard footsteps  coming from behind them, causing them to turn around.  
  
“Mom, mom,” a small girl exclaimed while running up the steps, closely followed by the woman she was talking to “I made it before you did.”  
  
Violet, who was looking very closely at the scene in front of them with very curious eyes, turned around toward Regina, bringing her tiny hand to the brunette’s face.  
  
“Mom,” Violet said, repeating the kid’s words, looking straight into Regina’s eyes.  
  
They didn’t have time to react to Violet’s first word, that she turned around toward Emma. With her hand stretched toward the blonde, she once again said: “Mom.”  
  
Both women standing there had their mouths hanging open. They had noticed how her babbling had started to sound more like words, and how she had started to try to repeat their words more and more. She had never repeated a word so clearly before, though.  
  
After a few moments of initial shock, the two women looked at each other: Emma had a puzzled expression on her face; Regina had her eyebrow raised at the other, trying to guess her thoughts.  
  
“Did she just…” the blonde let the question trail off.  
  
“Yes, dear,” replied the brunette “she just called us ‘mom’.”  
  
Both women gave a quick glance at the baby in the brunette’s arms, then turned around to face each other again. They both had a big toothy smile on their faces, now. Even though they had been aware of the fact that Violet’s first words were bound to come sooner or later, no one had warned them about the joy they would have felt about hearing them. About hearing the tiny human they have been taking care for so long uttering her first words. And they were also very powerful words: they had known that most babies’ first words were ‘mom’ or ‘dad’, but didn’t know what to expect in their particular situation.   
  
The two women stood there in front of the daycare for what felt like an eternity, keeping glancing between each other and Violet, unable to stop smiling.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Say Emma,” repeated the blonde, looking at Violet, who was sitting in her highchair “Em-ma.”  
  
“-ma,” said the baby once again; not being able to repeat the word as clearly as she had said ‘mom’ that morning.  
  
  
  
They had discussed Violet’s first word on their way back home from taking the baby to the daycare. Regina had been completely okay with Violet calling her ‘mom’: she had looked into it and had realized it would have been natural for the baby to call either or both or them ‘mom’, eventually. Violet was too small when the accident had happened, so she had little to no recognition of Mary Margaret being her mom; making her more prone to see both women as that.  
  
Emma had been aware of all those things as well, but after the initial excitement at Violet’s first words, she had started to get all kind of doubts about the baby calling her ‘mom’. She wasn’t really totally convinced about the new title Violet had given her. Maybe because she had never really seen herself as the mom type, or maybe because that made her feel more the weight of missing Violet’s parents. She wasn’t sure about her real reason, but she had mentioned her doubts on the subject to the brunette. To which Regina had suggested that if she didn’t feel that comfortable with it, she could have tried teaching Violet to call her ‘Emma’ instead. That’s what she was trying to do now.  
  
  
  
“I don’t think you can get out of this, dear,” pointed out Regina, giving out a small laugh.  
  
Emma looked from the baby in front of her to the brunette sitting besides her.  
  
“I think you are right,” she said at last. She had realized that, after all, even if Violet was going to call her by her name, she was still going to have the role of parent in the baby’s life. She had also realized that not having herself being called ‘mom’ wasn’t going to bring Mary Margaret and David back.  
  
“But I guess you are ‘ma’,” said Regina, trying to ease the blonde into this new thing “and I am ‘mom’.”  
  
“Ma,” repeated Violet, looking at the blonde in front of her. Then she turned around toward the brunette and added: “mom.”  
  
Emma started laughing at how quickly Violet had learned the distinction between the two, closely followed by the brunette, Their combined laughs caused Violet to start giggling, too.  
  


* * *

  
  
It was a chilly September night, Regina was laying in bed with her nose in one of her books. She had decided to get a bit earlier into bed to snuggle up under the light covers, while Emma was calming Violet to sleep for the night. At the sounds of footsteps approaching the room, she looked up from the book, and removed her glasses, positioning them in her lap.  
  
“What are you doing?” asked Emma with her mouth half full, leaning with her shoulder on the door stand.  
  
“Where do you think you are going with that?” asked the brunette, squinting her eyes at the ice cream bar in the blonde’s hand.  
  
“In bed,” said the younger woman, failing to catch a drip of ice cream rolling down the side, right into the floor.  
  
“You are not coming into bed until you haven’t finished that whole thing,” the brunette said, while her gaze followed the tiny drop on the floor “and haven’t cleaned that.”  
  
“Fine,” replied Emma, in a resigned tone of voice, before stretching her hand out toward the woman in bed “Wanna have a bite?”  
  
“How can you eat that when it’s so chilly tonight?” asked the brunette, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“It lasts longer like this,” replied the blonde, brining the ice-cream to her mouth just in time to avoid other drops from spilling on the floor “kind of. Come on, I’ll warm you up after.”  
  
Regina wasn’t sure what had convinced her: Emma’s words, how yummy the blonde made the ice-cream look, or the combination of the two things; but the next thing she knew was that she was getting out of bed. She marched toward the blonde, and took a generous bite.  
  
“Can I come sit next to you now?” asked the blonde, a big grin on her face at the sight of the brunette’s lips covered in chocolate.  
  
“You can not sit with me,” said Regina, licking the chocolate out of her upper lip.  
  
“Why?” whined the blonde “Mean. Are you sure they didn’t model Regina George after you?”  
  
“Who?” asked the brunette with a puzzled expression.  
  
“You have never seen Mean Girls?” asked Emma, not believing her ears.  
  
“I don’t recall I have,” admitted the older woman, tilting her head at the blonde’s surprised expression at her statement.  
  
“This needs to be fixed right now,” exclaimed Emma, starting to walk toward the bed.  
  
“Hey,” protested the other, causing the blonde to stop in her track. Emma looked back at her again, then finished the ice-cream bar in two big bites.  
  
“Here you go,” she said, after swallowing down the last piece “now I can turn on my laptop to show you one of the best movies I have ever seen. You get comfy in bed, I’ll clean this thing up first.”  
  
  
  
Almost two hours later, the ending credits were scrolling down the laptop’s screen.  
  
“So,” said the blonde turning around toward Regina “did you like it?”  
  
“I did,” said the brunette, turning around to face the other.  
  
“I am just so surprised you hadn’t seen it before,” said Emma, reaching for the keyboard to exit the full screen mode.  
  
Regina was about to reply, when the monitor switched from the end credits, to the website’s homepage, illuminating what was in the blonde’s other hand.  
  
“When did you get those?” the brunette asked, looking from the bowl of almost finished popcorns to the other woman’s face.  
  
“When I got up in the middle of the movie,” replied Emma with a smirk “I bet you hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t next to you the whole time.”  
  
“I didn’t…” admitted the brunette, she had been too focused on the screen “If I find one kernel in bed tonight, Miss Swan.”  
  
“I know, I know,” said Emma, she really didn’t need the brunette to finish her sentence, she knew she was going to pay in a way or another.  
  
  
  
It was three hours after they had finished watching the movie, when Violet’s crying came through the baby monitor on Emma’s nightstand.  
  
“Regina,” the blonde stretched a hand to wake the other up, her other hand holding her stomach “can you go check on Violet?”  
  
“It’s your turn,” replied the brunette, in her sleep.  
  
“I know,” said the other, letting out a low moan “I just can’t get up, I have a huge stomachache.”  
  
The brunette raised her head from the pillow, looked at the other in the eyes, and said: “Boo, you whore,” and went right back to sleep.  
  
Emma reluctantly got up; she knew once the older woman was this deep into her sleep nothing was able to really wake her up. She couldn’t refrain herself from laughing though: Regina had just quoted Mean Girls in her sleep. She was sure she was never going to let the other forget about it. However, to this day, Regina still doesn’t have any recollection of ever have said those words; but she doesn’t try to deny it either.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Regina was sitting behind her desk, checking the week’s purchases. She looked at the monitor in front of her: it was still 11 am; she couldn’t wait to go pick Violet up from daycare. It had already been a month since her first day, but Regina still missed having the baby with her in the morning. She was thinking about whether to get herself a cup of tea or wait till lunch time, when the door opening caused her and Belle to look up from their computers.  
  
“Hi,” said Kathryn entering the gallery.  
  
“Hey,” replied the other two women.  
  
“Can I talk to you for a second?” asked the blonde, approaching Regina’s desk.  
  
“Sure,” replied the brunette, saving her work on her computer.  
  
“Do you need some privacy?” asked Belle from the other desk.  
  
“Oh, no no,” Kathryn replied quickly “I didn’t mean that.”  
  
Belle smiled at her and went back to her monitor, still listening closely.  
  
“So?” asked Regina.  
  
“I was wondering…” started the blonde, trying to find the right words “Frederick and I were wondering if we could have Violet over for a night, to see how it’s like to have a baby in the house.”  
  
Regina squinted her eyes at her friend, Belle looked up from her monitor.  
  
“Are you…?” asked Regina.  
  
“Yes,” replied Kathryn with a wide smile “I’m pregnant.”  
  
“Were you trying to?” asked the brunette, it was her turn to ask questions this time. She knew her friend had to postpone her wedding when her fiancé had the accident. They hadn’t set a new date yet.  
  
“Get pregnant before getting married? Not exactly, but we are happy.” said the blonde firmly.  
  
“Then congratulations,” said Regina, getting up to hug her friend.  
  
Belle marched toward them too, and hugged Kathryn right after.  
  
“So,” said Kathryn, once they had done hugging it out “What do you think?”  
  
“About what?” asked Regina, she had completely forgotten about her friend’s question.  
  
“Violet. For one night at our house?” repeat the blonde.  
  
“Oh, yeah…” replied the brunette “let me just check in with Emma, maybe?”  
  
“Sure,” said Kathryn “you can tell her about the news too, if you want.”  
  
  
Regina nodded at her, and grabbed her cellphone on the desk. She walked toward the backroom and closed the door behind her. She didn’t think Emma would be against it, but she didn’t want to me heard just in case.  
  
“Hello?” the blonde answered her phone office after two rings.  
  
“Emma?”  
  
“Regina? Everything okay? Is Violet okay?” asked the blonde in one breath.  
  
“Everything is fine. We are all fine.” reassured the brunette. They didn’t really call each other at work during the day, so she perfectly knew why the other woman would be worried about receiving a call. They would usually text each other, but Regina had thought it was better not to ask this one particular thing through text messages.  
  
“Oh, good. What’s up?” asked Emma, re-positioning herself on her chair.  
  
“Kathryn passed by the gallery,” started the brunette “she just told us that she is pregnant.”  
  
“Really?” said the blonde on the other end of the phone “Tell her I said congratulations.”  
  
“I will,” replied Regina.  
  
“Regina?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Did you call me to tell me the good news, or you wanted to say something else?” she could sense the brunette had something else to add.  
  
“Yes,” said Regina “she asked me if her and Frederick could keep Violet for one night. To see how it is with a baby in the house.”  
  
“Oh,” replied the blonde, scratching her head.  
  
“It’s okay if you are not okay with this,” Regina almost whispered into her cellphone.  
  
“Did you already give her an answer?”  
  
“No, I thought I’d ask you first.”  
  
“Thank you,” said the blonde “And I am okay with it. I know you trust her, so I trust her too.”   
  
“Really?”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Great! I’m going to tell her now,” replied Regina.  
  
“See you at home then?”   
  
“Sure. Bye, dear,” said Regina, hoping the other was really okay with it.  
  
Before the brunette could hung up she heard Emma calling her name again.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Thank you for asking me first.”  
  
“No problem.”  
  
As soon as she had hung up, Emma really thought about it. She had had a fair share of encounters with Kathryn and her fiancé, but she didn’t really know them personally. All she knew was that Kathryn was Regina’s oldest and best friend, so she was sure that if the brunette trusted her so could she. She was also happy about Regina calling her to ask her her opinion on the matter before taking any decisions on her own.  
  
  
  
  
“Do you know what we can’t do with the baby here?” asked Regina, that same Saturday night. Kathryn had picked Violet up a few hours before. Now her and Emma were sitting at the kitchen table after their dinner.  
  
“What?” asked the blonde, raising her eyebrow “We have sex all the time.”  
  
“I wasn’t talking about sex,” said the brunette, getting up and walking toward the highest cupboard.  
  
“What did you mean then?” asked the blonde intrigued.  
  
“Drink,” said Regina, reaching for the bottle of tequila.  
  
“How long has that been there?” asked Emma, widening her eyes.  
  
“A couple of months,” replied the brunette, grabbing a couple of shot glasses “I was saying it for a special occasion.”  
  
“I can’t believe you kept it from me all this time,” protested the blonde, trying to sound offended, but unable to contain her grin.  
  
Regina started marching toward the living room, when she turned around to face the other woman still sitting at the table. “You coming?” she asked with a smirk on her face.  
  
“Hell yeah I am,” said Emma, jumping on her feet, and following the brunette.  
  
Once in the living room, the brunette placed both bottle and glasses on the coffee table, and sat on the floor right besides it. The blonde immediately followed her lead. Regina then poured their first shot of the night.  
  
“What are we drinking to?” she asked.  
  
“Us?” said Emma, tentatively.  
  
“To us,” said Regina firmly, before raising her glass and clinking it with the one in the blonde’s hand.  
  
  
  
  
“You are not drinking,” exclaimed the brunette four shots later.  
  
“I am,” replied Emma. She wasn’t really drinking as fast as the other was. She had noticed that the more the brunette drank the more hilarious she sounded. She had decided to pace herself in order to be sober to enjoy it.  
  
“What was I saying?” asked Regina a few moments later, squinting her eyes at the blonde.  
  
“You were about to tell me what’s your favorite thing about me.”  
  
“Right,” exclaimed the brunette, getting even closer to the other than she already was. “Do you know what it is?”  
  
“What?” asked Emma, too amused by the whole thing.  
  
“These,” started Regina, running a finger up and down the blonde’s arm “These strong arms of yours.”  
  
“Are they?” asked the blonde, following the other’s movement. The brunette was positioning her hands on both of her arms, and started running them up and down.  
  
“Yes,” said the brunette, stopping rubbing only to take another shot of tequila “I love watching your muscles flex every time you fix something in the house.”  
  
“That’s why you make me do all those stuff?” replied Emma, raising her eyebrows.  
  
“Yes,” said Regina, squeezing said muscles in her hands.  
  
  
  
It suddenly all made sense to Emma. She had noticed how Regina had started to ask her to do all the heavy work around the house. The first couple of times she had asked her to fix something in the house was a few weeks after she had moved in. The blonde thought the other didn’t really like her, so she was finding every excuse to tell her to do stuff. When they had started to get along, she just thought that Regina just didn’t like doing those things.  
  
In reality, Regina had always done almost all the heavy work around the house, she had lived alone for so long after all. This until one day they were both in the kitchen; she was cleaning up the kitchen top, Emma was washing the dishes. As soon as she had noticed the sink clogging up, Emma had removed her already unbuttoned plaid shirt, revealing a white tank top underneath. Regina was already mesmerized by the sight of the blonde’s bare arms, but what did the trick was seeing them flex once Emma was under the cabinet trying to fix the pipe.  
  
From that moment on, she had found every possible excuse to have Emma take off her shirt and start working with only her tank top on.   
  
  
“That’s why you are always asking me to fix something?” asked Emma, trying to sound offended.  
  
“Yes,” admitted the brunette “I even broke a few things myself. Oops.”  
  
“Not fair,” said the blonde, trying to contain her laughter. At this point the tequila was doing all the talking for Regina.  
  
“Are you going to stop doing those things for me?” asked Regina with a pout on her face.  
  
“I won’t,” said Emma, taking the other’s hands from her arms and holding them into hers.  
  
Regina smiled widely in her drunken state, then said: “Let’s have sex now.”  
  
“You are too drunk for that,” said Emma, promptly; letting go of Regina’s hands and patting on her own lap “just lay here for a bit.”  
  
The brunette nodded and did as the other had told her to. In just a few minutes she was snoring softly.   
  
Emma looked down at her, passing a hand through the dark locks, and smiled to herself.  
  
  



	10. Chapter 10

It was a cold November morning; Emma and Violet were at the house, while Regina was at work. It was one of those rare occasions were one of them would have the day off and the other couldn’t take it as well. The blonde had suggested not to bring the baby to the daycare for the day: she both wanted to spend more time with her, and didn’t think driving her out on the icy streets was a good idea; Regina had agreed.  
  
Emma had just turned around for one second to place the plate from Violet’s mid-morning snack, when she saw the baby getting off the couch and almost too rapidly walking toward the hallway.  
  
Violet had had her first steps a few weeks earlier; fortunately both moms had been there to witness it. Neither of them would have forgiven themselves if they had missed such an important moment. It had happened almost all of a sudden; they both knew the general age in which babies start doing certain things, but experiencing something first hand is a total different deal.  
That very first step had been lived in full by both, then the second (and all the others coming after) had been documented with both videos and pictures.  
  
Now, Emma was about to take her phone to send a quick video to the brunette when she noticed how far Violet had gone this time, she was already out of the living room by the time she had said her name the first time.  
  
“Violet,” called Emma again, walking into the bedroom, catching up with her.  
  
“Mom,” said the baby, running toward the nightstand on Regina’s side of the bed.  
  
“Violet, don’t,” said the blonde, breathless.  
  
“Mom,” Violet repeated, trying to stick her hand in the semi opened drawer.  
  
“No,” said Emma, trying to sound as firm as possible “that’s mom’s stuff, we can’t touch it,” while picking Violet up in her arms.  
  
Before she closed the drawer shut, the blonde couldn’t help but notice the envelope with the words “Regina Mills” on it. She knew exactly what said envelope contained: it was Mary Margaret’s letter Regina had received after her death. Seeing it now, the blonde made a mental note to ask the other woman about some things written in the letter she had always been curious about, but never had the courage to ask.  
  
  
  
  
That same night, as soon as Emma heard the car parking outside the house, she ran to the kitchen to grab the two glass of wine she had set aside for when Regina would have gotten home for the day. Violet had already had her dinner, since it was 9 o’clock, and was now sleeping in the nursery.  
  
“Hey?” said Regina approaching the living room, shivering a little under her wet coat.  
  
“Hey,” Emma welcomed her with a big smile, one glass still in her hand.  
  
“Is that for me?” asked the brunette, taking off the coat.  
  
“Yes,” said the blonde handing it over, before sitting down on the couch, “I thought you’d need something to warm up before dinner.”  
  
“Thank you,” replied the brunette in a grateful voice, before sinking down next to the other woman.  
  
“How was your day?” asked the younger woman as soon as the other had done with the first sip.  
  
“Exhausting,” answered Regina with a loud sigh, “completely exhausting. Not to mention the stupid icy streets.”  
  
“Come here,” proposed Emma, raising her arm to make room for the other.  
  
Regina nestled up against the blonde, and said: “Thank you!”  
  
“You’re welcome,” replied Emma, before lightly kissing the top of the brunette’s head, and wrapping her arms tightly around her.  
  
Twenty minutes of just the two of them snuggled in each other’s arms, and before she could fall asleep completely, Regina asked: “so how was your day?”  
  
“Nice,” said the blonde “a bit tiring. Violet has been getting faster and faster every day. You can’t turn around for a moment…”  
  
“How far did she get this time?” asked the older woman.  
  
“Near your night stand,” answered Emma “from here.”  
  
“Did she touch anything?” asked the brunette, taking her head off the other woman’s shoulder and looking her in the eye.  
  
“She didn’t,” reassured Emma “I got to her before she could finish opening the drawer.”  
  
“Okay, good,” said Regina, relaxing again. She knew the baby would be touching everything at this stage, but that drawer was the only place in the house were she had personal stuff. Everything else was pretty much all of Mary Margaret’s, David’s, or Violet’s stuff. Neither women had really brought in anything just yet, even after all these months since they had both moved in.  
  
“Regina?” called Emma, remembering the mental note she had made that morning.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“Earlier, I couldn’t help but notice Mary Margaret’s letter in the drawer,” said the blonde, trying to word it the best way she could “I always wondered…”  
  
“Yes, dear?” Regina encouraged her.  
  
“What did Mary Margaret mean when she said she was probably to blame for you not knowing love, or something like that?” asked Emma in one breath, before she lost the courage to ask.  
  
Regina looked up at her once again and asked: “You really want to know?”  
  
“Of course I do,” replied Emma quickly “if you don’t mind telling me, of course.”  
  
  
  
  
“Are you sure your neighbor isn’t going to be here any minute now?” asked the taller girl.  
  
“I am sure,” replied the shorter one, approaching the other “I told Mary Margaret to be here by 12 sharp, we have another half hour.”  
  
“Regina?” asked the blonde haired girl in an annoyed voice “does she really have to come too? This is the only time we can have to ourselves away from your mother.”  
  
“I know, Daniela,” said the brunette, “I really couldn’t get out of this one. She just recently lost her mom, and mother said we should be nice to our neighbors. I think she is trying to marry the kid’s father, or worse make me marry him.”  
  
“Gross,” replied Daniela, making a face “So, you are sure we are okay?”  
  
“Yes,” said Regina, before standing on her tip toes and kissing the taller girl before she could say anything else.  
  
Regina was almost 17 years old at the time; while her first real girlfriend, Daniela, was 17 years old already. They had met roughly a year earlier, at one of those horse riding competitions Cora always wanted to send her to. Regina loved horse riding, and loved spending time with her horse Rocinante, but never saw the appeal of all those competitions. That, until she hadn’t met Daniela.   
After they had kept meeting at almost every competition, and had started to really hitting it off, Regina had managed to convince Cora to transfer Rocinante in a new facility to practice. Cora had never suspected anything was going on between her daughter and the new “blonde girl” always around her. She had simply dismissed her the same way she had Kathryn: she just thought it was another “simple girl befriending Regina to get to her”; because of course everything had to do with her somehow. They also had managed not the get caught by using the stable whenever they wanted more privacy, it was the only place Cora would have never set a foot in.  
  
A couple of wet kisses later, and arms roaming everywhere the other’s body, both girls in the stable got startled by a loud gasp, followed by footsteps leaving.  
  
“Mary Margaret?” yelled Regina after her, barely recognizing the girl running away.  
  
“Was that your neighbor?” asked Daniela in shock “Will she tell your mother?”  
  
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this,” said the brunette, trying to contain her panic “You stay here though, just in case.”  
  
As soon as she was out of the stable, all she could hear was Mary Margaret yelling “Porn,” while running away toward what Regina realized in shock was Cora’s car.  
  
Before she could take a hold of the younger girl, her mother was already stepping out of the car and asking: “Porn? What happened dear, Mary Margaret?”  
  
“Regina and Daniela in the stable,” sayid Mary Margaret, not realizing what she was saying, or what she had actually seen.  
  
“What were they doing exactly?” asked Cora hesitantly.  
  
“They were…” the 10 years old didn’t know how to finish her sentence.  
  
“What was that about porn?” asked Cora to her daughter, suddenly realizing her presence near them.  
  
“We were just…” started Regina, she didn’t want her mother to believe what Mary Margaret was saying, but she didn’t want to admit to her relationship with Daniela either.  
  
“You were just what?” asked Cora insistently.  
  
“We were just kissing,” had to admit the brunette at last.  
  
“You were what?” was yelling Cora at this point, not believing her hears “Where is she now?” she asked walking toward the direction both girls had come from.  
  
“Mother,” said Regina, running after her, breathless at this point “Just leave her alone.”  
  
“Don’t tell me what to do,” said the older woman, with fire in her eyes “I will deal with you later.”  
  
“Please, mother,” kept saying the brunette, with tears streaming down her face “Don’t!”  
  
“Great, now I have to get my shoes dirty too,” said Cora,  ignoring her daughter besides her.  
  
  
  
Regina, the grown up Regina wrapped in Emma’s arms, had stopped telling the story at this point; her eyes burning with tears at the memory.  
  
“Hey,” said the blonde noticing the other woman’s breath accelerating “It’s okay if you don’t want to finish it. I had no idea how things were for you.”  
  
“It’s okay,” replied Regina sniffling “I just never really had to retell this out loud since it happened all those years ago.”  
  
“I can imagine,” said Emma, placing another big kiss on the brunette’s head, and bringing her as close to herself as possible.  
  
“Do you know why Mary Margaret got out of there yelling ‘porn’?” asked Regina after a few minutes of silence had passed.  
  
“No, why?”  
  
“She was just 10, she didn’t know better,” said the brunette “She told me this years later, but she had asked what the word meant to her father one day, and not knowing what to tell her he had said ‘when two people kiss each other’.”  
  
“What happened next?” asked Emma, still trying to put all the pieces together “Why did Mary Margaret feel so guilty?”  
  
“Because mother made sure my life would have been a living hell, more than it had already been till that point,” started explaining Regina “she started bringing home men for me to marry, sometimes very older men, in order to make sure I wouldn’t date another girl again. She said it wasn’t good publicity, for her.”  
  
“Oh, wow,” was all Emma could say at this point.  
  
“I always refused to meet any of those men,” continued Regina “She thought I had to be fixed. She had never even considered the possibility that I could be bisexual; for her it was a made-up word. So, I made sure to make a point to never tell her if I was dating a guy, especially the ones I knew she’d approve of.”  
  
All the blonde could do at this point was hold her closer and massage her back with her hand.  
  
“After the initial anger I had toward Mary Margaret, I realized she was just a kid, and knew mother was to blame for everything,” was Regina still talking “and Mary Margaret saw how mother had treated me from that day on. That’s why she has always blamed herself, even though I told her not to.”  
  
“That is terrible, honey,” said Emma. She never really called the brunette any nickname, unless it was a moment like this.  
  
“It’s ancient history now,” said the other “even though it still stings.”  
  
“I know,” said the blonde, squeezing the brunette’s arm “What happened to Daniela?”  
  
“Mother made sure her life would be ruined too,” replied Regina “She made sure she would never win another competition in her life, she made sure she had a bad reputation everywhere she would try to compete. I tried to contact her after a while, but I never got hold of her. I wouldn’t blame her if she still think it’s all my fault her life got ruined.”  
  
“I’m sure she doesn’t,” said Emma firmly “I’m sure she knows, as you do, whose fault all of this was.”  
  
“You really think so?” asked Regina, looking at the other with watery eyes.  
  
“I do,” replied the blonde, staring right back into those mesmerizing brown eyes “I really do!”  
  
“Emma?” said the brunette after a few more minutes.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Thank you!”  
  
“Anytime,” said the blonde playing with the other’s hair “Anytime!”  
  
“Can we stay like this a little bit more before dinner?” asked Regina.  
  
“Of course we can,” replied Emma, wrapping her arm around the brunette’s waist.  
  
Regina smiled to herself, and relaxed once again against the woman next to her, allowing herself to be held tightly.  
  


* * *

  
  
Christmas was almost here again; it was the first one with just the three of them. That is what Regina was thinking one Saturday morning, unable to go back to sleep. The holiday was a week away, and their whole house looked like it had been redecorated by Santa himself. They had used all the decorations they had found in the house, or almost all of them.  
  
“Hey,” said Emma, rubbing her left eye “What time is it?”  
  
“7,” replied the brunette, after a quick glance at the clock on the nightstand “go back to sleep.”  
  
“What are you doing already up?”  
  
“I was just…”  
  
“What?” asked the blonde, sitting up “What is it?”  
  
“Nothing,” Regina responded quickly “I mean, I was thinking about Christmas next week.”  
  
“Is it good or bad?”  
  
“I don’t know,” said the brunette, trying to collect her thoughts “I have all these mixed feelings. It makes me miss Mary Margaret and David more; but I also want Violet to associate this time of year with good memories. Plus…”  
  
“Yes?” asked Emma, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“I know you’re not the biggest Christmas fan.”  
  
Emma wasn’t indeed the biggest fan of this holiday. She had pointed it out to Regina one day they were discussing it; but she hadn’t been able to deny any celebration to either her or Violet.  
  
“Hey,” said the blonde, turning to face the other woman “I know I am not used to celebrating it, but I really want Violet to have all the good memories we can give her.”  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“Of course,” said Emma, her eyes melting for Regina “Maybe we can even start our own traditions.”  
  
“Thank you,” said Regina, smiling widely.  
  
“How about we go back to sleep now?” proposed the blonde “Until Violet doesn’t wake us up again, I mean.”  
  
“Okay,” said Regina, turning around, her back toward the blonde.  
  
Emma didn’t need Regina to say anything more, she knew that meant the brunette needed to cuddle up for a bit. She got close enough to the other woman to wrap her arm around her waist, and placing her head on her shoulder.  
  
Regina smiled gratefully at the gesture.   
  
Five minutes later, they were both sound asleep again.


	11. Chapter 11

It was one of the first days of Spring; the air was getting warmer, and that had definitely boosted everyone’s mood. Regina, Emma, and Violet were at the kitchen table; the two grown ups had just finished having their dinner, the baby was almost done as well.  
  
“I’ll start washing the dishes,” said Regina, after having observed the blonde feeding the baby for what seemed like ages. Not because they were being particularly slow, but for the simple fact that she was always in awe of that scene in front of her eyes.  
  
“Okay,” said Emma, giving a quick glance toward the brunette getting up “I’ll finish here, and I’ll come help you.”  
  
“Take your time,” said the brunette, the atmosphere around the room was really serene.  
  
The blonde focused all her attention back to Violet, who had been very good at eating everything they were giving her lately.  
  
“Here comes the airplane,” she had said for the tenth time that evening, bringing the spoon in her hand toward Violet’s mouth.  
  
“Pane,” said the baby, trying to repeat Emma’s words, before trying to grab the spoon with her little hands.  
  
“Look how cute,” said Emma to Regina “She is trying to grab the spoon from my hand.”  
  
Regina, who was now standing at the kitchen sink, turned around immediately, the widest smile on her face.  
  
Emma, with Violet’s hands still wrapped around her own, guided the spoon into the baby’s mouth.  
  
That same process had been repeated a few times, until the dish was all empty, and Violet was happily smiling at the blonde.  
  
Emma got up, dish in her hand. She was about to walk straight to the sink, when she had an idea.  
  
“How about we listen to some music?” she asked, walking toward the radio on the countertop, placing the plate right next to it.  
  
“-sic,” was Violet trying to repeat Emma’s words again.  
  
Regina was too immersed in her own  thoughts, and hadn’t heard what Emma had just asked.  
  
The blonde turned on the radio, and flipped through the channels till she found a song she liked.  
  
“This one,” she exclaimed.  
  
That, and the radio turning on, had caught the brunette’s attention. She hadn’t been able to comment on it, that she had felt Emma’s arms wrapping around her waist from behind.  
  
“What are you doing?” she asked, placing the plate she was holding back in the sink.  
  
“Dancing,” pointed out the blonde, doing just so against Regina’s back.  
  
“You’ll get water everywhere,” protested Regina, causing the other to reach for the faucet and turning the water off.  
  
“Emma!” fake protested Regina now.  
  
“Wait, that’s the best part,” said Emma, before she started singing along with the radio “You're so cute I wanna wear you like a suit. I think you'd look pretty good on me.”  
  
She then quickly turned the brunette around so they could face each other.  
  
“Idiot,” said Regina, smirking at the other woman’s words.  
  
“Yours,” said Emma, locking her eyes with the other.  
  
“I love you, my idiot,” said Regina, completely caught in the moment.  
  
Emma blinked at her a few times, it was the first time either of them had said those three words out loud - or at all - to the other, before smiling. She quickly planted a kiss on the other woman’s lips.  
  
“I love you, too,” she had said, after the kiss.  
  
“You do?”  
  
“Of course I do, Regina.”  
  
Regina looked into the blonde’s eyes again, and moved forward to kiss her a bit more passionately.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Nooo,” Emma shouted in her sleep, causing Regina to wake up immediately.  
  
“Emma,” said the brunette, reaching for the other woman’s arm trying to calm her down “Emma”  
  
“What?” asked the blonde, opening her eyes widely in the dark “What happened?”  
  
“You were having a nightmare,” said Regina, gently caressing her arm “you were yelling in your sleep.”  
  
“I was?” asked Emma, sinking into her pillow “I didn’t realize. Sorry.”  
  
“It’s okay,” said the other, getting a bit closer and placing her head on the blonde’s chest.  
  
Emma wrapped her arm firmly around the brunette.  
  
“Are you okay?” asked Regina, as she heard Emma’s heart pounding faster in her chest.  
  
“Yeah, I just…”  
  
“Yes, dear?”  
  
“I hadn’t had that nightmare in so long,” admitted the blonde.  
  
“Do you want to talk about it?”  
  
“You don’t mind?”  
  
“Of course I don’t.”   
  
“I’m not sure where to start.”  
  
“Take your time,” replied Regina, drawing imaginary circle on the other’s belly.  
  
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, the blonde took a deep breath.  
  
“It was the same nightmare I have been having since I can remember,” Emma started explaining “me in the middle of the road, yelling behind a car who has just left me there. A car with a perfect family in it, that just doesn’t want me anymore.”  
  
“I am so sorry,” said Regina, wrapping the other in an ever tighter embrace, knowing that anything else she would’ve said wasn’t going to help Emma feel better right now.  
  
“It’s okay,” said the blonde, clearing her voice “I mean, it’s not. But I am used to it. It’s not as bad as it was in real life.”  
  
“Does letting it out helps you?” asked Regina, trying to find a way to let the other feel better.  
  
“I don’t know. I haven’t actually talked about it with anyone else before. Well, except Lily, but she was in the system too.”  
  
“Who is Lily?” asked the brunette, the name didn’t sound familiar at all.  
  
“Haven’t I ever mentioned her before?”  
  
“I don’t recall you have.”  
  
“She was - is - a girl I have met in the system,” started the blonde “she was the only one who actually understood how I felt.”  
  
“That is good,” said Regina, thinking about how important it had been to have Kathryn in her life when it was a living hell for her “It’s good to have that kind of person in your life.”  
  
“Yeah,” said Emma, a hint of sadness in her voice.  
  
“What happened with her? How come you have never mentioned her?”  
  
“Actually we…”  
  
“Yes?”  
  
“She was my first real girlfriend,” admitted the other “we have been on and off for a long time. That until we broke up a few years ago.”  
  
“Oh,” exclaimed Regina, finally understanding why she hadn’t heard that name before “I’m sorry.”  
  
“You are?”  
  
“I mean… Not that you broke up, of course. Since we wouldn’t be here right now if you hadn’t,” admitted the brunette “I meant, that you lost someone so special to you.”  
  
“Thank you,” said the blonde, planting a kiss on the brunette’s forehead.  
  
“Anytime.”  
  
“I love you, Regina,” said Emma, grateful that she had the other woman in her life.  
  
“I love you, too,” replied Regina, before kissing the other’s woman belly.  
  
“Do you want to go back to sleep, or…” asked the blonde, smirking.  
  
“Or…?”  
  
“Do you want to have some fun?”  
  
“Let’s go with fun,” said Regina, before placing herself on top of the blonde “definitely let’s go with fun.”  
  


* * *

  
  
“Wow,” exclaimed Regina “I still can’t believe Kathryn is getting married this summer. I mean, not that I can’t believe she is getting married, it’s just that I have known her since we were teenagers.”  
  
“I know what you mean,” said Emma, smiling at her girlfriend. They hadn’t really made anything official, but it was pretty obvious to both of them that there wasn’t anyone else.  
  
“I am kind of nervous,” admitted the brunette. They were in Regina’s car, on their way to meet Kathryn and her fiancé for dinner at their house.  
  
“I can imagine,” chuckled the blonde, looking at the other behind the wheel “You’ll be the most beautiful maid of honor ever.”  
  
“You are just saying that because you are sleeping with said maid of honor,” said the brunette smirking, stealing a quick glance at the other sitting in the passenger seat.  
  
“That might be one of the reasons why,” admitted Emma “but I am sure I am not the only one who will think that.”  
  
Regina had always known how beautiful she was, and how people perceived her and her beauty. Today she was just so nervous about the whole idea of being someone’s maid of honor; about her best friend getting married. She was glad Emma had been there to help her relax a bit about the whole situation.  
  
“And to think she just had her baby,” said Regina thinking about the reason they had been invited by the couple.  
  
“I know,” exclaimed Emma “Are you ready to be a godmother, again?”  
  
“Oh, god,” exclaimed Regina back “I haven’t thought about that particular thing as well.”  
  
“Hey,” said the blonde in a reassuring voice “you’ll do great.”  
  
At the next red light, Regina turned around toward the other and said: “So, this made me think…”  
  
“Yeah?” asked the blonde, raising an eyebrow since they were just talking about marriage and things related to that.  
  
“I was thinking,” continued the brunette, as she started driving again “that maybe we could move into my house.”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Yeah,” said the other, eyes focused on the road “I mean, Mary Margaret and David’s house doesn’t really feel like our own. We are still sleeping in the guest bedroom. You are still paying for the garage to hold your stuff in, and my house is available. Plus, it’s definitely bigger.”  
  
“Wow,” exclaimed Emma, scratching her head “You really have thought this one through.”  
  
“I have,” admitted the other.  
  
“And you sell it so well,” said the blonde, letting out a nervous laugh “Can I just…”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Think about it over too?”  
  
“Of course you can,” said Regina, parking right in front of her friend’s house “Take all the time you need.”  
  


* * *

  
  
Emma kept tossing and turning in bed; it was 3 am a few days later, and she couldn’t bring herself to sleep. She was too busy thinking about what Regina had proposed her. She knew that the house they were living in was probably only going to be momentary, but even moving there had been difficult for her. She didn’t know if it was more difficult to move in with someone you think doesn’t like you, or moving her stuff in the same house as her girlfriend of almost a year.  
  
“What’s going on?” asked Regina, suddenly waking up as well “Did you have another nightmare?”  
  
“No,” replied the blonde, startled by the other woman’s voice in the middle of the night “Just can’t sleep.”  
  
“How come?” asked the brunette in her sleepy voice.  
  
“I was thinking about what you said the other day.”  
  
“What did I say?”  
  
“Us moving in your house,” admitted the blonde.  
  
“Oh,” said Regina, trying to understand the other’s tone of voice “does that make you nervous?”  
  
“A bit.”  
  
“Do you wanna talk about it?” proposed the brunette.  
  
“When do you think we’d move there, if I decide for yes?” asked Emma instead.  
  
“hmmm…” started Regina, touching her cheek “I was thinking maybe before Violet’s second birthday!?”  
  
“So,” said the blonde, counting in her head the months to said birthday “in the next 4 months?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Can we talk about it more tomorrow?” proposed the blonde “we both have to get up early in the morning.”  
  
“Okay,” replied Regina, sensing that pushing right now wouldn’t have done neither of them any good.  
  
“Thank you,” said Emma, grateful she had a bit more time to think about it.  
  
“You are welcome,” replied the other woman, before moving a few inches toward the middle of the bed, her arm touching Emma’s.  
  
“I love you,” said the blonde, reaching for Regina’s hand “you know that right?”  
  
Once she had said it the first time, she had said it a lot. She truly did love her, and wanted Regina to know that. Although, she said it to remind it to herself just as much. She wasn’t really good at commitments and she needed to remind herself that this time… this time things were different.  
  
“I know,” replied Regina, interlocking her fingers with Emma’s “I love you, too.”  
  


* * *

  
  
Emma tiptoed out of the nursery the next night. She had just managed to calm Violet to sleep, and didn’t want to risk waking her up again.  
  
She sinked down on the couch right next to Regina, who was busy watching one of her shows. She very quietly waited for the show to finish so they could finally talk. She was glad she had yet another ten minutes to think things through.  
  
“Yes,” she had said once the brunette had turned the tv off, placing a hand on the other woman’s knee.  
  
“Yes, what?” asked Regina turning around to face the other.  
  
“Moving to your house,” replied Emma slowly “I want to do it.”  
  
“Are you sure?” asked the brunette, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“I am,” said the blonde, scratching the back of her head “I mean… it’s going to take some getting used to, but I want to take this step!”  
  
“Yeah?” Regina questioned her decision once  again.  
  
“Yeah,” said Emma, squeezing Regina’s knee lightly “let’s do this.”  
  
“Thank you,” said Regina, wrapping her arms around the blonde’s neck to hug her.  
  
“You’re welcome,” replied Emma, hugging her back “I didn’t realize how important this was for you.”  
  
“It is,” said the brunette, letting go of the embrace and looking into green eyes “I want to give you and Violet a stable home; something we can call our own.”  
  
At that Emma’s eyes started sparkling with tears, she closed the small gap between them once again and hugged Regina as tightly as she could.  
  
She still had all her million doubts in her head; but Regina mentioning what she wanted to do for both her and Violet, made her think that maybe she could have gone through this just fine.


	12. Chapter 12

“Wow,” exclaimed Emma, stepping out of her yellow bug “when you said big, I didn’t think you meant this big.”  
  
Regina closed the car door, and looked up at the way too familiar mansion in front of them. She hadn’t really been there that often since she had moved in Mary Margaret and David’s house. She had been there more often at the beginning when all of her clothes were still there, and before she had changed her address on all her bills. Then, after a while, she had gone to the house only to check if everything was okay. She still had people coming in to clean it and take care of the garden every so often.  
  
“Seriously,” repeated Emma, turning around toward Regina “this house is huge!”  
  
“I guess you can say that,” replied Regina, taking her eyes off the house and looking at the other woman.  
  
As they were approaching the front door, Regina stopped in her tracks all of a sudden.  
  
“You okay?” asked Emma, taking a few steps back and closer to the other woman.  
  
“Yeah,” said the brunette “I was just thinking. Let’s go in now.”  
  
After Regina had opened the front door with the keys in her hands, she signaled Emma to go in first.  
  
Emma, after she did just that, took a few minutes to take in the sight in front of her. She made a 360 degree turn in the middle of the foyer, and turned right back to face Regina; who was still standing at the front door.  
  
“You know?” said the blonde, a big smile on her face “you said your family was rich, but I didn’t imagine this kind of rich.”  
  
“Why are you smiling?” she asked, when she noticed the huge smile on the brunette’s face.  
  
Regina was so so glad that Emma had no idea how rich or famous her mother really was. Everyone else in her life had heard about her a lot, and usually before they could have met her in person. It was usually difficult for people to make a clear distinction between the celebrity and the horrible woman she was at home. And Regina was thankful for the fact that all Emma knew about Cora was what she had told her herself; and even more grateful that she had never had the chance to meet her.  
  
“You look like a kid in a candy store,” she replied instead.  
  
“I love this house,” exclaimed Emma excited.  
  
“You only saw the foyer so far,” pointed out the brunette.  
  
“Then show me the rest of the house,” said the blonde, winking and stretching a hand toward the other.  
  
Regina took it in her own, and guided Emma toward the stairs to the second floor.  
  
  
  
  
“Wow,” exclaimed Emma, collapsing on the bed.  
  
“Yeah,” exclaimed Regina back, who was lying on the other side of the bed.  
  
“When I said to show me the rest of the house,” said the blonde, almost breathless “I didn’t think we’d end up having sex on your bed.”  
  
“Our bed,” pointed out the brunette, position herself on her side to take a better look at the other.  
  
“Yeah,” said the blonde, following the other woman’s lead, and rolling on her side as well.  
  
“And by the way,” continued the brunette “you haven’t seen the way you winked at me earlier. I thought it was implied.”  
  
“Okay, okay,” admitted the other, laughing “it kind of was my intention.”  
  
“Good,” said the brunette “how long do we have before we have to pick Violet up from daycare?”  
  
Emma rolled on the other side of the bed, and reached beside it. Her phone was in the back pocket of her jeans, which had landed right beside the bed as they were undressing each other.  
  
“Two hours,” she said, before replacing her phone on the nightstand, and turning in her previous position.  
  
“Do you want to check the rest of the house now?” asked the brunette, smirking.  
  
“Check the rest of the house,” asked the blonde, raising an eyebrow “or actually check the rest of the house?”  
  
“We’ll see,” said Regina winking; before getting off the bed, and turning around toward the other woman, while wrapping a sheet around her naked body.  
  
Emma jumped off the bed almost immediately, and met the brunette halfway.  
  
“Don’t you want to grab a sheet as well?” asked the brunette, looking up and down the blonde’s body “not that I am complaining.”  
  
“Nah,” said the blonde, biting her lower lip, and stretching her hand toward the other once again  “where to next, my Queen?”  
  
“Queen?” asked Regina, amused.  
  
“Yes,” said the blonde, smirking “You are my Queen, and this is your palace.”  
  
“What does that make you?” asked the brunette.  
  
“Your Knight?!” said the blonde, hesitant.  
  
“Then to the kitchen it is,” said Regina, taking the still outstretched hand in hers “my Knight.”  
  
And after those words, both women ran down those stairs they had climbed just an hour before. They reached the kitchen still hand in hand, both laughing and both naked. The sheet that wrapped Regina’s body long gone at that point.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Look at this,” exclaimed Emma, raising her voice enough to be heard from the other room.  
  
“What?” asked Regina, entering the living room.  
  
“This,” repeated the blonde, a picture in her hand.  
  
“Where did you find it?”  
  
“It just fell out of one of the books,” she replied, turning the picture in her hand to look at it again.  
  
They were halfway done with packing everything in Mary Margaret and David’s house. They were making two separate piles so far. One with everything that needed to be brought to the mansion; their stuff, Violet’s, and whatever they wanted to keep from their lost friends. The other with everything that belonged to the couple that they didn’t really need to bring with them; which was all going to some charity of their choice.  
  
“Was Mary Margaret talking about this that famous first night?” she asked when she saw the brunette standing in front of her, speechless.  
  
“Yes,” said the brunette, coming out of her thoughts “Yes, it is. I was just thinking about that.”  
  
“Are you finally ready to tell me the famous story of Snow White and Prince Charming?” asked the blonde, trying to lighten up the mood.  
  
“Now?”  
  
“Yeah, why not?” said Emma, patting on the floor next to her “come sit with me.”  
  
Once the brunette was sitting down next to her, Emma handed her the picture.  
  
Regina took it in her hands and looked down at it: a picture of young and smiling Mary Margaret and David, dressed as Snow White and Prince Charming respectively.  
  
“They were both 19 at the time,” started the brunette, after a few moments “It was taken at Disney World in Florida. Did you know they actually met there?”  
  
“No, I didn’t,” said the blonde, a hint of sadness in her voice for never having the chance to hear the story from her friend himself.  
  
“Yeah,” continued the brunette “before her first year of college, Mary Margaret had decided to go to work at the park for the summer. Apparently she had applied through some magazine, and they had told her she was perfect for the part of Snow White.”  
  
Emma just nodded to show the other woman she was following her story.  
  
“And of course, she had decided to drag me down there as well,” the brunette remembered with a chuckle “by then, it was just me at the house. And Mary Margaret only had her father.”  
  
“You went to Disney World?” asked Emma, raising her eyebrow “I can’t picture you there for some reason.”  
  
“Well, I couldn’t picture myself there either,” admitted the brunette “but I went because she insisted I’d go.”  
  
“And that’s when you met David?” asked the blonde.  
  
“Yeah,” said Regina, nodding “We did have a good time, after all, the three of us.”  
  
“I’m sure you did,”  replied Emma, a tear in the corner of her eye “Why was Mary Margaret so embarrassed about this?”  
  
“I don’t know, honestly,” said the brunette, thinking about it “but I am sure that she never regretted it. After all, that’s where she met the love of her life”  
  
That last sentence caused the tear in Emma’s eye to finally roll down her cheek.  
  
“Hey,” said Regina, noticing that “How about we do something?”  
  
“What?” asked the blonde, catching the tear with the back of her hand.  
  
“How about we go to Disney World on vacation next year,” said the brunette with an encouraging smile “just the three of us?”  
  
“You’d really go?” asked Emma, sniffling back some tears.  
  
“Of course I’d go,” said Regina, before noticing new tears down the other woman’s face.  
  
“Hey,” she added, getting closer to the blonde and wrapping a arm around her shoulders.  
  
“I just…” said the blonde between sobs “I just miss them so much.”  
  
“I miss them too,” said the brunette, leaning her head on the blonde’s shoulder “I miss them so much, too.”  
  


* * *

  
“I can do this - I can do this,” was all Emma had been repeating in her head for the past week. She was repeating it to herself even now that she was placing a box in her car. It was the very last box that needed to be brought at the mansion, and then they were all done with the move. Regina had left the house a few hours before, her car full of boxes as well. They had left Violet at Belle’s house, so they would have been able to move everything without having to worry about the baby.  
  
Emma, though, had started having more and more afterthoughts the closer and closer the date of the actual move got. She hadn’t voiced any of them to Regina, because she didn’t want the other woman to worry about her; she already had her duties as a maid of honor to think about, besides her own stress for the move. That had been the first mistake: not talking about it to her girlfriend, and bottling it all up instead.  
  
“I can… I can… I can…” she said to herself again and again, getting into her yellow bug. After a few minutes of driving toward the mansion, she turned the car around and drove in the opposite direction.  
  
  
“Where have you been?” asked Regina, approaching the front door as soon as she heard it open “I have been waiting for you an hour.”  
  
“I just…” started Emma, unable to finish her sentence.  
  
“Just what?” asked Regina “I tried to call you.”  
  
“I know,” said the blonde, lowering her head “I saw the calls, and the texts.”  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“I just… I just needed to clear my head,” finally admitted the blonde.  
  
“About what?”  
  
“About this… moving here.”  
  
“I thought,” said Regina, trying to calm herself before speaking; all the stress from the last couple of weeks coming up at once “I thought you were sure about this. You said…”  
  
“I know what I said,” replied Emma, taking a few steps forward, causing the other to take a few steps back “I just have been rethinking about it for the past couple of days.”  
  
“Why haven’t you told me about it?”  
  
“I didn’t want to make you worry about me,” said the blonde, clenching her fists on either side of her body “you already have a lot going on right now.”  
  
“Why are you telling me this now, then?” asked the brunette crossing her arms, that old fire in her eyes; the one she hadn’t shown since before everything between them had happened.  
  
“Because…”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Because I can’t do this right now,” said Emma, before turning around and walking toward the front door again “I just can’t. I’m sorry, Regina.”  
  
As she saw Emma walking out of the front door right in front of her eyes; Regina collapsed on the floor, crying.  
  
“Emma,” she said in a low voice, knowing too well that the other woman was long gone by now.  
  
She couldn’t believe that Emma had actually left her there, in the middle of the foyer - the very same foyer the blonde had looked at so enthusiastically not so long before. At that thought, new tears started streaming down her face. She braced herself in the best way she could and she let herself cry and feel everything she was feeling in that moment. She knew she had to get herself together, she had things that needed to be done, and Violet to take care of. She couldn’t allow herself to fall apart completely; but she decided she could at least let herself fall apart for a little while.


	13. Chapter 13

“I should know better than to trust blondes by now” said Regina, still in the same position in the foyer.  
  
“Hey,” protested Kathryn.  
  
“Sorry,” said the brunette, facing her friend “I didn’t mean you.”  
  
“I’ll let it slide this time,” said the blonde, trying to lighten up the mood.  
  
“You still haven’t answered my question,” pointed out Regina, bringing her knees even closer to her face.  
  
“What question?”  
  
“Why are you here?”  
  
Kathryn just look her up and down as to point the state she was in.  
  
“I mean…” rephrased the brunette “who told you to come here?”  
  
“Belle,” explained Kathryn “she called me earlier when she saw you didn’t go pick Violet up from her house, and you weren’t even answering your phone.”  
  
“It’s in the kitchen,” said Regina, suddenly realizing that she had left it there earlier when she had heard Emma come in.  
  
“Doesn’t matter now,” said her friend, massaging the brunette’s back “do you want to talk about what happened?”  
  
As soon as she had received the call from Belle, Kathryn had drove to the mansion; she knew Regina and Emma were moving their last few things, so it was her first stop on the list. She had gotten really worried when she had approached the porch and had seen the front door open. She got inside trying not to make any sound, and found her friend sitting in the middle of the foyer.  
  
“Don’t you have wedding plans to worry about?”  
  
“Nonsense,” said the blonde “right now all my attention is on you: you are my best friend and you need me right now.”  
  
“I don’t know if I have any tears left for that,” said the brunette giving out a small laugh.  
  
“How about we get you dehydrated first, then you tell me what happened?” proposed the blonde getting up.  
  
“Okay,” replied the brunette getting up as well.  
  
Once in the kitchen, Kathryn walked toward the fridge to get her friend a glass of water; Regina walked directly toward her phone. She scrolled down the 10 calls and texts she had received from both Belle and Kathryn, in the hope to find another name in there.  
  
“Did she contact you?” asked Kathryn, who didn’t know what had actually happened, but had figured it had something to do with Emma.  
  
Regina just shook her had in response.  
  
“So…” started the blonde, after Regina had almost finished her first glass of water “I’m all ears.”  
  
As she finished explaining what had happened just a few hours before, something she didn’t even know how to completely explain herself, Regina looked up from the table and into her friend’s eyes.  
  
“No explanation at all?”  
  
“Nope.”  
  
“I’m sorry.”  
  
“Me too,” said the brunette “me too.”  
  
“Do you want me to talk to her?”  
  
Regina chuckled at that, but shook her head no.  
  
“You sure?” questioned Kathryn again “you just have to say the word and I’ll go find her.”  
  
“I am sure,” said the brunette smiling at her friend “thank you for the thought tough!”  
  
“Anytime,” replied the blonde, before reaching for her phone who had just beeped with a few messages.  
  
“Oh,” she exclaimed reading them.  
  
“What?”  
  
“It’s Belle,” said Kathryn “she got a text from Ruby saying that Emma was at her house.”  
  
“Oh,” replied the brunette, before adding: “I am not surprised, she is her friend.”  
  
“You okay?”  
  
“Yeah,” said Regina, a new tear escaping her eye “at least I know she is okay.”  
  


* * *

  
  
“Why did you do that?” asked Ruby.  
  
“I don’t know.”  
  
“What are you going to do now?”  
  
“I don’t know,” repeated the blonde.  
  
“Can you not know stuff while sitting down?” said Ruby, pointing at the spot right next to her on the couch “you are driving me crazy going up and down like that.”  
  
“Sorry,” said Emma, sitting down.  
  
“Thanks.”  
  
“What did I do, Ruby?” asked the blonde, looking at her friend with desperation in her eyes.  
  
“You panicked?!?”  
  
“That is an understatement,” replied the blonde, laughing a bit too loudly.  
  
“Okay,” said the other, knowing too well Emma was using sarcasm to not fall apart “I think… I think you need to figure out why you did what you did. Why you bolted out of there.”  
  
“You really think so?” asked the blonde, her eyes softening a bit.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“What if it’s going to take me a lot of time?”  
  
“You’ll just have to allow yourself some time to figure things out,” said Ruby gently “but not too much time to lose Regina. I know you don’t want to lose her.”  
  
“I really don’t,” replied Emma, her eyes red.  
  
“Have you cried yet?”  
  
“I haven’t,” admitted the blonde “Not yet. I can’t bring myself to cry, because I don’t know when I’ll stop.”  
  
“Okay,” said her friend; she had seen Emma cry in one or maybe two occasions since they have met.  
  
“Can I crash here tonight?” asked the blonde, after a few minutes of silence.  
  
“Of course you can,” said Ruby smiling “and I know exactly what you need right now.”  
  
“And what is that?”  
  
“Shots with your bff,” she said getting off the couch.  
  
“Thank you, Ruby,” replied Emma, looking up at her friend “you always know how to cheer me up.”  
  
“You are welcome,” said the other, before walking toward the cupboard on the other side of the small living room.  
  


* * *

  
  
A few days later, Ruby knocked at her office’s door and opened it when she was told to come in.  
  
“Hey,” said her deputy “guess who is here?”  
  
“Who?” asked Emma, raising her eyebrow.  
  
“Violet,” she replied, before raising her voice and adding: “you can come in,” toward the door.  
  
Emma immediately got on her feet. She had sent a text to Regina late that previous night, saying that she needed to see Violet. She hadn’t heard anything back from the brunette, not that she expected anything from the other considering the way she had left. But she also didn’t want to put Violet in the middle of it, even though she realized that leaving Regina meant leaving Violet a bit too. That was what had convinced herself to sent that text after overthinking about it all day long the day before.  
  
“Oh,” exclaimed the blonde when she saw Belle pushing the stroller inside the office “hey, Belle.”  
  
She didn’t know why she was expecting to actually see Regina walk inside her office right now. Belle being there made more sense.  
  
“Hello, my little princess,” she added immediately in the most cheerful voice she could master, approaching her baby to take her in her arms.  
  
“Ma,” exclaimed Violet as soon as she saw Emma.  
  
“My little princess,” repeated the blonde, holding the baby closer to her “I have missed you.”  
  
“How about you take your break now?” proposed Ruby at the heartbreaking scene in front of her “I’ll take care of things here.”  
  
“You sure?” said toward her deputy, then turned around to face Belle “How long can she stay here?”  
  
“I have the whole afternoon off,” replied Belle “so take all the time you need. Regina said to bring her back for dinner at…”  
  
“At seven,” said Emma at the same as Belle finished her sentence, startled a little at the mention of her girlfriend’s name. Wait, was she still her girlfriend at this point? The thought made her hold on to Violet even more.  
  
“Yeah,” said Belle.  
  
“Thank you,” replied the blonde, before placing Violet back in her stroller “I think I’m just going to go for a walk.”  
  
Both Ruby and Belle nodded at her, looking at her walk out of the office.  
  


* * *

  
  
Regina was walking up and down Violet’s new nursery at her house. She hadn’t been able to sleep at all the night before. She hadn’t been able to sleep for two whole weeks, actually, ever since Emma had left so suddenly. She had almost opted to go back to Mary Margaret and David’s house, because her own looked way too big for just the two of them, but she hadn’t gone through with it just because all of their things were already at the mansion.  
The night before, Violet couldn’t stop crying because one of her tooth was coming in and Regina hadn’t been able to calm her down as easily as she usually did. The baby must have sensed the tension in the air. But Regina, as much as she had tried to, wasn’t able to be calm herself; she had spent the last two weeks sleeping right next to the baby, as she did soon after the accident. So, that night before, they had both fallen asleep crying, Regina sitting on the rocking chair, Violet in her crib.  
  
“What do I do now?” she was telling herself walking up and down the room now, followed by Violet’s gaze.  
  
She had called Belle earlier to tell her she wasn’t going to go to work, so she could try to get some actual sleep, but now she hadn’t been able to do just that. Not that she had really tried to lay down on her bed or anything.  
  
“That’s it,” she exclaimed a bit too loudly, causing Violet to try to repeat her words “I’ll try to lie down a bit.”  
  
She walked toward the crib and picked the baby up. She walked into the master bedroom and placed Violet into the second crib they had put into what was supposed to be their bedroom, in case Violet had to sleep with them for whatever reason.  
As she was about to lie herself down on the bed, she noticed a few pieces of paper coming out of the nightstand on what was supposed to be Emma’s side of the bed. Before she could reach for them, she immediately recognized what they were…  
  
  
  
“Emma,” exclaimed the brunette walking in the kitchen “Have you seen my book and glasses? I can’t find them”  
  
“Have you checked the bedroom?” replied the blonde.  
  
“I haven’t…” said Regina, tilting her head “Why are you giggling?”  
  
“I am not…”  
  
“Emma Swan…” said the brunette leaving the room “if you have done anything to my glasses or my book…”  
  
As she entered their bedroom, she noticed both items carefully placed on her nightstand. As she got closer, she noticed two post-it notes sticked on both of them.  
  
“I love the way you wear your glasses,” she read out loud on the one on said item.  
  
“I love how you look always so focused while reading one of your books,” she read on the other.  
  
“See?” came the blonde’s voice from behind her “I didn’t do anything to them.”  
  
“I see,” said Regina turning around, looking tenderly at her girlfriend “What is this for?”  
  
“I just wanted to remind you why I love you,” had replied the blonde, leaning to the door stand “That’s all.”  
  
  
  
  
That’s what Regina was remembering right now, looking down at other post-its Emma probably had written down before leaving. It had been the very first time she had done one of her post-it things, but it hadn’t been the last for sure. It had begun Emma’s own little ritual: placing a post-it anywhere in the house, reminding Regina one of the things she loved about her.  
  
Now, looking down at all the reasons written down, her eyes had started to burn with tears. She had managed to hold them back, until she reached the very last two.  
  
  
  
Regina strode into the station, pushing Violet’s stroller in front of her.  
  
“Watch the baby,” she had barked at August, who had looked at her speechless.  
  
“I think she is busy,” he replied, before she could enter Emma’s office.  
  
“Just watch the baby,” she had repeated, before turning the knob.  
  
“Yes ma’am,” came August’s voice from behind her as she opened and closed the door.  
  
“Regina,” exclaimed the sheriff, jumping off her chair “What are you doing here? Is Violet okay?”  
  
Regina didn’t reply at all, she just walked close enough to the desk; and took all the post-its out of her purse.  
  
“You love me, uh?” she said, throwing all the post-its one by one in the air, causing them to land on or around the desk “You’ll always love me, uh?”  
  
“Regina,” said the blonde weakly, knowing there was nothing she could say right now to make things right.  
  
“Don’t even…” said the brunette, throwing the very last one reading ‘I’ll always love you’ right in her face, or as close to her face that she could manage.  
  
She immediately turned around, and strode outside the office again. As she was pushing the stroller from beside August, who had been making faces at Violet, Emma ran behind her.  
  
She leaned to the door stand, not knowing what to do or even if she could anything at that moment, just glad to see Violet was okay. When both Regina and the baby were out of sight, Emma looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, the words written in red stinging her to the core.  
  
“What have I done?” she repeated to herself “What have I done?”  
  


* * *

  
  
A whole other week had passed since Regina had stormed into her office, throwing post-its at her face. Emma had realized that she probably had deserved that, she hadn’t been fair to the other woman at all. She had just left saying that she couldn’t do what they were doing, and had just walked away.  
  
It had taken her a whole week to just think and re-think her next move. She had been thinking about what Ruby had suggested her about realizing the reason why she had done just that. She knew that she wasn’t really the best at long term commitments, she had known that all her life, but she thought that with Regina things were different. That her, the other woman, and Violet formed their own little family; and they were stronger together.  
  
As she went through all those things in her head, she opened her bug’s door; and she started driving.  
  
When she got at her destination, she walked out of the car; and looked up at the house in front of her.   
  
She took a few deep breaths right outside the front door, and knocked on it.  
  
“Emma,” said the woman opening the door.  
  
“Lily!”


	14. Chapter 14

“Are you sure I should come, too?” asked Ruby, for what felt like the 100th time that night.  
  
“Yes, honey,” replied Belle warmly, before ringing the bell in front of them “Kathryn invited you as well.”  
  
Kathryn had begged Regina not to do a bachelorette party, but to opt for just a night in between close friends. The list was  meant to be longer, including some old friends from the bride-to-be’s college, but it had shrunk down to Regina, Belle, and Ruby. And Emma, of course, if the fight hadn’t happened.  
  
“Hi,” said Regina, opening the door.  
  
“Hi,” replied Belle, cheerfully.  
  
“Hey,” said Ruby, in a unusual low voice. The thing she had dreaded about coming tonight staring into her eyes, as to read things that weren’t being said. She had worried so much that Regina was going to hate her a little bit, just because she was Emma’s friend. But that wasn’t the case at all…  
  
“Hey, Ruby,” she replied in her sweetest voice.  
  
The couple followed the brunette into the living room, where they were welcomed by all kinds of food everywhere, and a few kind of entertainment, in case the boozes weren’t enough for the night.  
The kids, both Violet and Alex (who was Kathryn’s baby boy), were with Frederick at his parents’ house. It had taken a lot of convincing to do in order for Regina to agree to that, but at the end she knew it wasn’t safe for the four of them to be drinking and taking care of the two babies at the same time.  
  
  
Two hours later, they were having a really good time, until Regina got a bit too close to Ruby. She hadn’t been this drunk in ages; her two friends weren’t even sure if they had seen her this drunk.  
  
“Come on,” she said, wrapping her arm around the other woman’s shoulders “you can tell me: where is she?”  
  
“I told you,” replied Ruby, answering the same question the brunette had asked three shots before “I have no idea.”  
  
“Liar,” spat out Regina.  
  
“Regina,” said Belle, in order to let her friend stop what she was doing; without hurting her feelings even more, knowing how much she had been hurting already.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Ruby answered you already.”  
  
“But…” said Regina, squinting her eyes at Belle.  
  
“That’s okay,” repeated Ruby once again glancing at her girlfriend, before looking beside her “Emma left me a note saying she was going to be away for a while. And she took days off from work, that’s all I know.”  
  
“Emma,” repeated Regina, the only thing she had really caught from everything the other woman had just said; too drunk to really take in anything else.  
  
She let out a loud sigh, and collapsed on the other side of the couch; holding on to one of the throw pillows. In record time, she was snoring loudly.  
  
  
  
“What happened?” she asked waking up the next morning, with the hugest headache she had ever had.  
  
“You got drunk. Really, really drunk,” responded Belle, standing besides the couch, holding a glass of water and some aspirin “and were a pain in the ass to my girlfriend.”   
“That bad?” she asked, bringing a hand to her head.  
“Not that bad,” admitted the other, sitting down next to it “you just kept asking where Emma was.”  
  
“Did she tell me?” asked the brunette hopeful.  
  
“You really do need this then,” said Belle, handing her the items she was holding into her hands “because she did, several times.”  
  
“Thank you,” said Regina, before grabbing both aspirin and water.  
  
“So?” she continued, after taking a few more sips of the water.  
  
“Ruby said that Emma has taken some days off work,” Belle replied,  trying to remember what else she had said “oh, and she left her a note saying she was going to be away for a while.”  
  
“Oh,” exclaimed Regina, flinching at her own self for being too loud “I remember now.”  
  
“That’s good,” said Belle, before standing up from the couch.  
  
“Belle?” the brunette called after her before she was out of the room.  
  
“I’ll apologize to Ruby later,” she promised to her friend.  
  
“Thank you,” said the other, smiling gratefully.

* * *

  
   
“Cheerful maid of honor or realistic maid of honor?”  
  
“Just be your usual self.”  
  
“Realistic maid of honor it is,” said Regina, nodding in agreement.  
  
“Not that realistic though,” joked Kathryn in response.  
  
“Okay,” said the brunette, pretending to take note in the air “be yourself, but not completely yourself.”  
  
“That sounds about right,” the blonde laughed out, grateful for her friend trying to keep the mood up.  
  
They were in one of the room at the hotel where Kathryn and her husband-to-be where going to get married in a few hours. Someone had just finished doing her hair and had left just the two of them in the room.  
  
“Regina?” had said the blonde in all seriousness now.  
  
“You’ll do just fine,” had replied her old friend, without her having to voice her worries “Frederick is the luckiest guy on the planet; and if he doesn’t keep treating you the same wonderful way he has since you two met, he’ll have to deal with me.”  
  
“You know?” said Kathryn, while laughing at that last part “he is actually kind of scared of you.”  
  
“He is?” asked Regina, unable to contain her laughter “why?”  
  
“He says you look like you could fight him and win,” she admitted “plus, he says you always look ready to protect me.”  
  
“Well…” started the brunette “he got it right.”  
  
“I’d do the same for you,” replied Kathryn “you know that.”  
  
“I do know that,” getting closer to her friend to give her a hug, trying not to ruin her hair in the process “thank you.”  
  
“How are you feeling now?” she asked, when she let go of the hug.  
  
“Better,” replied the bride-to-be smiling “actually better. Thank you!”  
  
“Anytime,” said the brunette, smiling back “ready to put on the dress now?”  
  
“I am,” was Kathryn’s firm response.  
  


* * *

  
  
She got at the hotel at the very last minute. She had been thinking about whether or not she should have gone to the wedding. She knew that she had RSVP’d together with Regina all those months ago, but she wasn’t sure if that still counted in the current circumstances.  
She had opted to go and finally face the music; that’s why she had put on the first decent outfit she had found and had arrived at the ceremony at the last minute.  
  
She walked into the room, and stood at the very back. She tried to see next to Kathryn and Frederick, who were now saying their vows. She moved her head from side to side until she spotted Regina standing right next the bride. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the brunette in her maid of honor dress.  
  
As the ceremony was over, she quickly moved far away from the doors she had used to walk into the room. She waited until the very last guest had left it to continuing the celebrations in the room opposite this. She sat down at one of the closest chairs, and took a deep breath.  
  
  
Ten minutes later, she walked inside the ballroom; scanning the room in order to find Regina. She moved her gaze a few times into the crowd, until she ended locking her eyes with the brunette.  
  
Regina quickly broke the eye contact, and turned around. She lightly gripped Kathryn’s arm in the process.  
  
“What happened?” asked the blonde worried, before looking at the direction the brunette was pointing with her head “Oh, do you want me to go talk to her?”  
  
“No, no,” said Regina quickly, trying not to show how nervous she had gotten all of a sudden “I’ll deal with it.”  
  
“Let me know if you change your mind.”  
  
“I will,” said the brunette, letting go of her friend’s arm and walking toward the exit doors.  
  
Emma, who had been standing there, trying to understand what was going on between the two women, followed her out of the room with her gaze. As soon as she had felt Kathryn’s eyes leaving her, she walked after the brunette.  
  
She turned around the hallway just in time to see her walk in the restrooms.  
  
“Regina?” she called, walking in a few moments later; locking the door behind her.  
  
“What are you doing here?” asked the brunette, unable to contain her irritation.  
  
“I RSVP’d, didn’t I?” said Emma, trying to sound funny.  
  
“Don’t…”  
  
“Okay!”  
  
“What are you doing here?” repeated Regina once again “You were gone. Ruby said… Ruby said you had left.”  
  
“I did,” said the blonde, taking a few step forward “but I came back.”  
  
“You still haven’t answered my question,” said the brunette, taking a few steps back, placing her hands on the sink’s countertop behind her.  
  
“Okay,” replied Emma, stopping where she was, sensing the other didn’t want her any closer “I went to see Lily.”  
  
“Oh,” was all Regina said to that, before turning around to face the mirror behind her.  
  
“It’s not like that,” cried out the blonde, noticing a tear running down the other woman’s face “let me explain.”  
  
“And what’s it like then?” snapped Regina back, turning around again to face Emma.  
  
“I had been thinking a lot about the reason why I just left all of a sudden, why I left you,” started the blonde “I had been doing a lot of thinking about that. And I came to the conclusion that I had to go see Lily in order to sort everything out.”  
  
“This isn’t helping,” said Regina, more irritated than ever “how is going to see your ex any good for us?”  
  
“If you let me explain…”  
  
“Okay…”  
  
“I realized that that’s what I have been doing all my life: I get too close to someone and then I bolt at the most inconvenient moment,” continued the blonde “I thought… I thought that with you it was different. Then it all came down on me at once. And I had realized that I had to finally get my shit together in order to be with you. And to never ever feel like, when something is too good to be true, that I have to flee before something else ruins it. You know, before you got tired of me or decided I wasn’t enough.”  
  
“I would never…” started the brunette, without finishing her sentence.  
  
“I know, Regina,” said the blonde “I know. I am not saying this was your fault. This is all on me.”  
  
“What is on you?”  
  
“All of it,” replied Emma “Leaving, making you feel like crap… making myself feel like crap.”  
  
“I still don’t understand how any of this has anything to do with you going to Lily.”  
  
“When I realized all of those things,” she continued explaining once again “I also realized that it was the same thing that I had been doing for all those years to Lily. Did you know she moved here because of me, and I dumped her soon after?”  
  
“I didn’t,” replied the brunette, her grip still strong on the countertop “you didn’t say much.”  
  
“I know,” said Emma, scratching the back of her head “well, I did that. So, I decided to track her down and go talk to her. I owed her an apology for everything I have ever done to her. It wasn’t fair to her.”  
  
“That’s all you did?” asked Regina, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“Yes,” exclaimed the blonde “what did you think I did?”  
  
Regina just looked away and down at her feet, unable to speak the thought that had come into her mind as soon as the other had said she had gone to see her ex.  
  
“Oh, Regina,” said Emma, her eyes softening “I would never cheat on you. Ever.”  
  
Regina looked up again and locked her brown eyes with green ones.  
  
“I don’t blame you for thinking that,” continued the blonde “I have been awful to you. I am so so sorry, Regina. I don’t know how long it will take you to forgive me, but I am willing to do whatever it is you ask me to do. If you want me to leave you alone, I’ll understand that as well. All I have to say right now is that I am an idiot; but I am hoping to still be your idiot.”  
  
Regina kept eye contact with the other woman for the whole last part of the speech. Without realizing it, silent tears had started rolling down her face. She had thought about this moment a lot ever since Emma had left. She had thought about all the possible scenarios she could think of. None of them included Emma opening her heart so completely to her, and being this sorry; or looking so afraid at the thought of losing her. Nobody had ever been afraid to lose her; no one she had ever been in a romantic relationship with, at least.  
  
“You are still my idiot,” she finally said after what felt like an eternity for both women standing there.  
  
Emma’s face looked both shocked and relieved at the same time. Shocked because she had never imagined Regina was going to forgive her so soon, or at all. She really had thought that she had ruined things big time; and with the one person she felt was the love of her life. Relieved because all those things she had thought would happen, turned out not to be true.  
  
Regina closed the small space between the two, and cupped her hands on the blonde’s face before kissing her passionately.  
  
“I have missed you so much,” said the blonde, coming out of the kiss.  
  
“I have missed you, too,” replied the brunette, before locking her eyes again with her.  
  
Without having to utter a single word, they both moved in sync: Regina wrapped her arms around the blonde’s neck - Emma grabbed the brunette just under her butt and lifted her up - Regina automatically wrapped her legs around Emma’s waist.   
  
Holding Regina firmly in her arms, Emma walked toward the countertop and placed Regina on it, in sitting position.  
  
“I love the tuxedo,” said Regina, reaching for the blonde’s black tie, loosening it up a bit.  
  
“And I love this purple dress,” said Emma, reaching behind the other woman’s dress to unzip it.  
  
“Is it safe to do it here?” asked the brunette, clearing her head from the haze she was in for just a moment.  
  
“Yes,” replied the blonde, sliding down the other woman’s dress in one easy sweep, helped by Regina lifting herself a bit at the right moment “I locked the door as I got in.”  
  
“Good,” replied Regina, grabbing the blonde’s face and bringing her closer to herself, wrapping her legs firmly around her waist once again, before kissing her.  
  
A couple or more wet kisses later, Emma started placing more kisses on Regina’s neck. She started kissing the brunette entire body, very very slowly.  
  
“Emma, please,” protested Regina “we don’t have all the time in the world.”  
  
“Okay,” said the blonde, smirking up at the brunette, before lowering herself enough to come face to face with the other woman’s closed legs on the countertop. She slowly massaged them from the tights to the knees, before parting them ever so gently.  
  
Regina lifted herself up from the countertop once again, as Emma removed her black panties with a swift movement. She moved a few inches closer to the blonde’s face, and placed both her legs on either of her shoulders.  
  
  
  
“That was,” said Regina, holding on to the countertop.  
  
“Incredible,” replied Emma, who was leaning against the other woman.  
  
“I was going for mind-blowing,” said the brunette, letting out a loud laugh “but that works, too.”  
  
“Who knew make up sex would have been like this between us,” said the blonde, removing her head from the other woman’s lap and looking up at her “we should do this more often.”  
  
“Fight or just the make up sex?”  
  
“I’ll go with just the make up sex.”  
  
“Good answer,” replied the brunette, before planting a kiss on Emma’s head “now fetch me my panties.”  
  
“Ever so romantic,” joked the blonde, before reaching down her feet to grab them.  
  
“Idiot,” said Regina grabbing the item of clothing the other was handing her.  
  
“Yours,” said Emma, before leaning forward to kiss her one more time.  
  
“I love you,” she added after the kiss.  
  
“I love you, too.” 


End file.
